Piotr Damasiewicz opens for us the next chapter of his fascinating musical travels. This time, he comes back with his group/project Into The Roots, with whom he has already recorded two very well-received albums: Śpiwle and Watra. The records have not only met with splendid reception on the part of jazz and improvised music fans, but have also brought the artist and his group the grand prix of the Polish Radio Folk Music Festival “New Tradition”. This not only goes to prove the power of the artist’s creation, but also shows that his very personal artistic vision in a natural way transgresses borders of genre and environment. This happens, first of all, thanks to the passionate creative vision of the group’s leader as well as his ready dialogue with various musical traditions, but also owes a lot to the strong emotional and spiritual element of the elaborate whole that each of the records is. In his most recent album, the artist further develops the motifs initiated in the previous records, offering a vision which is strikingly coherent, in spite of its springing from so diverse inspirations.
Of course, if we were in need of a label, then the name of „jazz musician” would suit Damasiewicz the best. Yet, this term has come to mean so much nowadays, that due to its generality it means almost nothing. Let us then add quickly that most of his works published under the label L.A.S., all the more those realized within the Into The Roots project, can be counted among those created by musicians representing such forms of understanding jazz and jazz expression, and the special kind of responsibility for sound, such as Pharoah Sanders, Kahil El’Zabar, Don Cherry, or the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. That is, with those, who, bravely transgressing the beaten tracks of habit and alleged stylistic duties, have reached truly new worlds – not with the intention of dazzling the listeners or achieving commercial success, but in order to seek the source, depth and one’s own truth – often where the world of sound touches upon metaphysics.
In Damasiewicz’s case, his thorough come-back to the roots happens not in order to „employ” the roots, but in order to refresh his own story through their creative power. That is why, in his music-making – just like in the music-making of the afore-mentioned musicians – you will not find the tendency to come and draw inspiration from traditional songs for sheer folksiness and then build your own musical story in a random way. The compositions proposed by Damasiewicz come into the world of traditional music in an organic way and, however they sometimes speak their own, say: modern, contemporary, jazz language, at the same time they remain in unceasing dialogue, even more; in unceasing interpretation of a folk, traditional theme. Only, it is done on one’s own responsibility, thus through one’s own language and using one’s very own means of artistic expression. Which is – by the way – the most honest manner. And which is, in the aesthetic sense, simply delightful.
The point of departure, or the main inspiration (just like in Śpiwle and the first Watra) is the musical tradition of the Beskid Mountains, and then, further: of the Carpathians, which is „only” the beginning of the music’s way. In mountain spaces and their environment, Damasiewicz feels very much at home. He has found „his own place” there. Again he is realizing an artistic project together with folk artists from Sucha Beskidzka, which has all but become a kind of a symbolic centre on the map of his creative peregrinations with Into The Roots. Traditional music of the Polish mountains is not a mere ornament here, or an occasion for free improvisation. The whole story springs from there and from themes taken from the Beskid music, of course also transformed by the members of his ensemble, constitute a constant point of reference here. They are like a living spring, around which a fascinating dialogue takes place between what is old, and contemporary music narration. A characteristic feature of the leader and his band, is their great mindfulness, but also almost tenderness in relation to traditional music. All that said, Damasiewicz – fascinated and overwhelmed with the tradition – does not pretend to be a village musician, and that’s why he creates his own, so clearly distinct whole.
This traditional note of the Beskid music appears here in its original, natural sound, performed by indigenous musicians, known from previous projects of Into The Roots. A strong, indigenous basis is provided here by the singers: Alicja Krzeszowiak, Kamila Krzeszowiak and Paulina Kazimierska (the latter also playing the violin) as well as by Krzysztof Ryt – five-string viola, and Marek Ryt – bagpipes, pipe, French horn.
They meet in a collective musical elation, co-created by the members of the leader’s trio: Piotr Damasiewicz – playing not only the trumpet, but also the organ, a harmonium, percussion instruments or even extatically singing, Zbigniew Kozera – double bass, guembri, and Paweł Szpura – percussion. There are also special guests. Michał Żak – flute, shawm, dulcimer – bringing the note of south-eastern areas of Europe and Katarzyna Karpowicz, who, playing the koto, takes us to far-away Japan. Out of this extraordinary cooperation, a broad sound range springs, and the particular instruments have a chance to present both their unique solo sound, as well as their possibilities of section playing, accompanying the improvisation of others.
Damasiewicz and friends thus roam from the region of the Western Carpathians – Poland and Slovakia, from the regions of the Babia Góra Mountain and Sucha Beskidzka, from Orava – along the Carpathian arc, with a broad gesture reaching out for new inspirations, sometimes changing directions. So they wander south and east. Thus in their playing appears a whiff of Japanese music, together with the sound of the aforementioned classical Japanese koto, which dominates in two pieces. And surely, no one will be surprised to hear that in the sense of the idea, their music is much indebted to African music. One of the many aspects of this affinity is the instrumentation, especially the sound of the Maroccan guembri, which the ensemble have been using for a long time. Damasiewicz admits that music from Africa was the first and foremost element binding the members of the trio, now occasionally broadened to a quartet.
Those echoes of diverse musical quests – stylistic as well as geographic or cultural, exploring tradition – reflect the artist’s curiosity and energy. His travels all around the world – banale as it may sound – are not a tourist’s travels. They are more like expeditions, involving discovery and absorption of specific elements of other cultures and sensitivities. Not for cheap exotics, but because they allow the artist to find in himself new spaces of sensitivity, they co-create his musical world. As a result, they allow his listeners to be fascinated and delighted in new ways.
And also in that sense one can say that the ensemble’s leader learns from the greatest masters, being aware that an artist’s responsibility does not consist in copying even the most beautiful patterns or examples but in creating – in the context of earlier traditions – your own thing, your own whole, expressing your own beliefs, likes, sensitivity and inclinations. Because of all those things, listening to Watra II we have no doubts that this a new album of Piotr Damasiewicz, who has endowed it with his characteristic brand, his own personal expression, mood and power. It is a kind of music that is worthy of special concentration, of dedicating your full attention, because, in return, it offers the listeners truly unforgettable impressions.
Tomasz Janas
