(Gdańsk / London / Budapeszt / Bydgoszcz / Tokio)

Saturday 9 November
10.30 PM
MCK

Jerzy Mazzoll

Music is an art where restraint and control are indispensable to success. Jazz requires more than that since at its heart lies trance, rhythm and abandonment of what is routine and predictable. Few musicians in Poland understood this truth as well as Jerzy Mazzoll. He is a representative of ‘yass’ movement and laid foundations for the development of avant-garde jazz in Poland. In those times he created Arhythmic Perfection band with which he explored the boundaries of improvisation not only in music but also in other arts. Since then he continued to pursue the ‘less traveled’ road. In the 90's he met with Derek Bailey and participated in his famous Company Week Festival. Tony Oxley became the producer of his then released ‘Perplex’ album. After that he collaborated with Django Bates Orchestra and Peter Brotzmann. He also started a project called Diffusion Ensemble which eventually led to recording a series of albums. He has also lead workshops together with Peter Kowald and Olga Szwajgier which influenced a whole generation of young musicians. He was the moving force in creating the Art Depot festival which gave Polish and international audience a unique opportunity to explore the nature of improvisation in cultures different from European or American. He released 15 albums which arguably changed the face of Polish free music. Currently he is working on a film and theatre projects made under the auspices of Bogusław Schaeffer. Jerzy Mazzoll proved to be one the most unconventional individualities in Polish music.

Jon Dobie

He resides in London when he is not travelling and performing in Europe. He has received several arts awards to enable him to continue his performances most notably from the British Council. He is currently reorganising the No Wave label and preparing to tour with his bands. Co-founder and tour organiser for B-shops for the Poor; plays with Pieces of Brain, Sonicphonics, Interference 3.0, The Dynamix, Total touch, Ken Hyder, plays in the 2near 2far 4tet with Vladimir Miller, Alexandr Alexandrov and in duo with Peter Brotzmann also has played with Charles Hayward, Billy Bang, Shoji Hano and with Kris Wanders.

Attila Dóra

He studied Maths and Philosophy and graduated as a buddhist theologian from The Gate of Dharma College in Budapest. Currently he plays alto, tenor, baritone sax as well as metal and bass clarinet. „Some people call my style ’free improvised music’, others say it’s ’conceptual noise structures using chance-operations’. As in the concept of ’no-self’ from buddhist tradition, I'd say that thinking of categories creates trouble. I focus on stepping across a border, or standing on the borderline. I improvise.” He composed music for choreographers such as Daniel Lepkoff, Benno Voorham, Oleg Soulimenko, Eszter Gál, Zuzanna Markiewicz, Enikő Buday, played in theatre pieces of Yoshiko Chuma and Piotr Bikont, collaborated with several musicians Vasco Trilla, Balazs Pandi, Raymond Strid, Marco Eneidi, Michal Dymny and Ensemble 56 among others. He played during the 50th Ljubljana Jazz Fest, Krakow Autumn, Cultural Congress in Bydgoszcz (11), New York Improvisation Festival (97, 02) among others.

Sławek Janicki

He is a musician, a filmmaker and he also organises various artistic events. He co-created and is the current director of Mózg club in Bydgoszcz. He is the creator and the director of Mózg Festival. His artistic activity began in mid 80's with Henryk Brodaty band. He co-created bands such as Trytony, Mazzoll & Arythmic Perfection, Pieces of Brain. For the past 20 years he has been active as a musician on the international improvised music arena. In his performance he is entirely devoted to the absolute improvisation, which according to Janicki is the purest and the highest form of music.

Shoji Hano

His first drumming experience was at the age of four, when he played a traditional Japanese drum at the Kokura Festival. He began playing the western drum set at the age of 15. It was around this time that he also started listening to jazz and studying the drumming of jazz masters such as Max Roach, Art Blakey and 'Philly' Joe Jones. After moving to Kyoto in 1974 he started playing avant-garde jazz with the late pianist Yoshito Osawa. Around that time Hano met the trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, who introduced him to the martial art Shintaido. Since that time, the philosophical concepts of Shintaido have influenced Hano's music. After a two years long break caused by frustration with the direction of his career Hano returned to the music scene in 1985 he began to develop his own style, based on the concepts of Shintaido. He had organized a project called Shintaido Performance and Drums where he played solo and with dancers in a bimonthly concert series. Hano recorded his solo performances from the 1988 series, and these recordings were released the following year as a tape called KI-Improvisation. In 1992, Hano launched an ambitious improvised music project with the formation of his group Kamadoma-Poly Breath Percussion Orchestra. At first the instruments were two drum sets, a shime-daiko and a taiko (traditional Japanese drums), and a nohkan (a traditional Japanese flute). In 1997 Hano was a member of the rock-oriented trio Joichiza, with Hananojo Ichikawa and Masaharu Shoji. In the same year, he launched a new project: a free jazz band called Dai So-on Gakudan (meaning ' avery noisy band'). The original members were Hano and four sax players, later on a pianist joined the group. In 1998 Hano joined the psychedelic rock band High Rise. He played with musicians such as Kaoru Abe, Mototeru Takagi, Masahiko Kono Peter Brotzmann, Nicky Skopelitis, Eugene Chadbourne, Hans Reichel, Wadi Gysi, Keshavn Maslak, Johannes Bauer, Hans Koch, Werner Ludi, William Parker, Dror Feiler Billy Bang, Vladimir Rezitsky and Vladmiri Chekasin. He played in Hano/Kondo/Osawa trio, Odowara band, Easy Music Band, Tibetan Blue Air Liquid Band, OPE band, Hit and Miss, Sonic Renegades. He performed in Japan, USA, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Lithuania.