Warsztaty Jazzowe v Polskim Lesznie - Jazz workshops in Leszno, Poland

Letter hand written in Banska Bystrica, dated the 25th of July 2010:
On the night of July 17, 2010, the bebop tank arrived to Leszno, Poland. Ben, Bud, Truth&Way, Mici, Caligula, Otsar, Clark and Mrs. Singer - They were ready to face whatever there was waiting for them, willing to proclaim the Truth with all their strength, until the last moment. They were only 8 and were in a foreign land. But they knew their destiny...

Thus started the 6 day long jazz workshop in Leszno. It was full of battles, vodka, beer, both good and bad music, laughter, screaming, only few hours of sleep, but most of all - JAZZ...
And this is how it went.

Saturday, Day 1 (July 17):
Not photographically documented, the bebop tank arrived at 9pm and after unpacking headed out for a dinner and beer. It ended with 100€ bill at the club, and with the machine-gunner W. falling asleep on the toilet at 4am. The workshop has not even started yet.

Sunday, Day 2 (July 18):
The first day of workshops has come and after the classes, in the evening at 9:30pm a jam session started. The lecturers played, and after their set, the bebop tank went on stage and thus our jamming began... it ended at about 6am, with the great tenor player Piotr Baron playing with us for several last hours the jazziest tradition - we went through Ben Webster, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt - even singing the famous one-note vocals of Dizzy Gillespie in "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" from 1957. Also, another 100€ bill was paid at the club. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of the tank from this day either, only 1 news report from the front written on the next day, signed by machine-gunner W.: "Yesterday in the late night/early morning hours, the bebop tank inflicted a big blow to the Polish jazz voluntary squad, which without a chance surrendered and left the battle ground. The battle was terminated with a swing-bebop negotiation with general Baron. The number of deaths is not yet officially known."

Monday, Day 3 (July 19):
The bebop tank, though tired after the long night jamming, still had enough strength to seize the jam session and play until the morning, this time until 4am. Notable moments were Body & Soul, where Ben imitated Hawk's solo (which served admiration from fellow saxophonists), Isn't She Lovely, sang by Bud (showing that the bebop tank was equally skilled in commercial music), Just a Gigolo, sang and played by Truth&Way, very truthfully emulating the style of Louis Armstrong.
One "not musical" moment, that is up to this day remembered was when Mici found something on the ground in the club - something which he was looking for for a long, long time... what it was, remains a secret, but we know...
This is the first documented day with photographs - it shows the tank jamming.

Ben

Truth&Way

Mici

Caligula

Ben with Otsar and Clark

Ben and Otsar in the background

At this day, also another 100€ bill was paid in the club.

Tuesday, Day 4 (July 20):
After 2 days of tireless jamming, the bebop tank decided to take a break - after staying for one set of the jam session, they decided to leave for their barracks and get some sleep for the next day. However, the jazz mood prevailed and the members of the tank did not get to their beds until 3am. Still, it was earlier than the other days and helped them regenerate. In this day, only documentation of Mici with the lecturers exists.

Mici with Salentin and Jahr in the back

Wednesday, Day 5 (July 21): 
This was the last day of the bebop tank as a whole - after this night, Otsar, Caligula and Mici were leaving, thus leaving the control of the tank to its 5 remaining members.
The bebop tank is documented by a photo, showing 6 members of the tank and one Polish trumpetist.

left to right: Polish trumpetist, Mici (b), Clark (tp), Ben (ts), Caligula (d), Otsar (g), Truth&Way (p)

During this night, Otsar managed to blow the fuses, leaving the whole club without electricity - this however did not stop the acoustic trio (Ben, Mici, Caligula) from playing continuously until the power was back on.
Also, Mrs Singer is documented to be singing at this jam session, thus leaving only 1 person from the tank undocumented - Bud the pianist. At this day, also another 100€ bill was paid in the club.

Mrs Singer, singing Cry Me A River

Ben, blowing in the background 

At this night, another news report from the front was submitted, again by machine-gunner W.: "All quiet on the western front - in the past days there has been a lot of negotiations and cooperation and common rivalry are on the daily order. For tonight, there is another planned attack of bebop tank, this time even led by general Baron, who after the first battle changed sides and is now considered an ally. However, as we stated, the first battle was against the Polish volunteers, we certainly cannot rise against the Polish Republican Guard. Even though, this small victory has a meaning and gives us hope in the right way and the strength to carry on. Please, think of us tonight..."

Thursday, Day 6 (July 22):
This day was marked by leaving of 3 of our troops early in the morning. The rest of us attended the classes and in the evening a Jazz Mass, led by Piotr Baron. At 10pm, the last jam session started. This day, however, we were so surprised by the chain of events, that we almost left the battle ground without a fight.
The Polish seized the jam ground and started playing all kinds of non-jazz music, rock, with signs of bad groove, even metal... (?). We endured all this, but when it seemed to be ending, suddenly a lethal blow came - one Polish fellow started rapping into the groove! All in the same time, we decided to leave. And we would, if it were not for general Baron, who ran on stage and stopped this with his scatting into the microphone. In a few minutes, the lecturers came on stage and seized the battle ground, at least bringing back the feeling of jazz.
Thus we jammed for a while with this new constellation (Hans Peter Salentin-tpt, Piotr Baron-ss, Ben-ts, Bud and Truth&Way-piano, Jaromir Honzak-doublebass, Marcin Jahr-drums), until the general decided that it was enough and we can proudly finish the set.
Thus ended the last jam session...

Friday, Day 7 (July 23):
The day of the big concert, finishing the 1-week long workshop. Every group showed off their music, still only a few stayed true to jazz - there was a lot of pop music and alternative, non-jazz music present. At last, Truth&Way came on stage with Mrs Singer who sang Cry Me A River - she really cried the river. Then Ben and Bud paid their tribute to Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson. And after accompanying some vocalists, the concert ended.
In the end, Bud was awarded the best piano student of the workshops, winning new headphones, useful in the bebop tank. Congratulations!
After the concert, the only notable thing was the last march of the bebop tank - at 2am, the members of the tank marched into the common dining room, where all the Polish people were sitting, with Ben carrying his laptop on his shoulder, listening to jazz. He walked in, accompanied by his fellows, named all the musicians on the recording (it was Harry Sweets Edison, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, Alvin Stoller), then turned back on the heel, as no one understood, and marched back to room #7, where he fell asleep listening, still dressed and with his shoes on.

Saturday, Day 8 (July 24):
This was the day of going home - leaving early in the morning, and traveling the whole day, we listened to Fats Navarro, Trane, McCoy, and others in the tank, staying true to our tradition.
After arrival to Banska Bystrica, each of us went their separate ways, quietly contemplating about what happened.
Have we shown the truth? Have we stayed true to our way? Have we played JAZZ?
I think we have.
And I have a lot to thank to all members of the bebop tank - ďakujem vám, všetkým členom bebopového tanku, za úžasný týždeň. Zostali sme verní!
------------------------------------------------------------
Signed, machine-gunner W.

Jazz tradition

It got me thinking again...

Jazz tradition - Is it music that is still 100% alive, or does it serve only as a study material now?
What is there to add to the jazz tradition (swing, bop etc), that has not yet been played or created?
The great masters have played this music and kept creating new and new melodies, chord structures, licks, rhythmic devices, all of it, but has there been a point, where this style(s) became saturated? Are the stories not true, that even the greats, in their late years, started to lack the innovativeness, started to repeat themselves?

Sure, there have been people like Miles, Trane, Sonny etc, who kept finding and changing their style to always a new branch of jazz, that has been just created, but that meant that they left the old behind;
       After the 50's, Miles refused to play My Funny Valentine, sayin' he can't look back,
       Trane kept coming up with completely new approaches, to a point where he asked Elvin "not to swing",
       Sonny switched to funk, soul, rock, R&B, calypso latin music, where he stopped applying the bop language that he previously used and started playing new.
I don't want to say that they abandoned their roots, because that is not true - what I want to say is that when they felt that it the swing and bop approach everything has been said, that they cannot add/create anything really new within this approach, they had to abandon it in a way to create something new. Turn the page, end one phase.

I guess the music really has to go forward - everyone says:
"You study the great old masters, just like everyone in the music field (and pretty much in any field in life) has, but you still have to walk your own path. You can't just copy, you have to create, which means that you have to go forward..."
 In the tradition, there is still less and less that you can create (which in new and still traditional) and after a while, if you don't want to be a copier, you start feeling restrained and you start studying modern and "new way" and you go forward and you exploit possibilities, and you keep trying something new - new rhythms, harmonies, metres, sounds, instruments...
Everything keeps going forward and forward, unfortunately (besides a few exceptions) further and further away from the tradition.

And what makes me sad is this: What am I supposed to do, I, who simply like swing and bebop, not just like a study material, but as a beautiful music that is pleasant to ear, music that I want to keep playing?

I love Ben Webster, his beautiful, simple, but yet amazing melodies, the old breathy tone, relaxed swinging time and phrasing, melancholy and peacefulness, playfulness, crying, the biggest heart...

I love the young Sonny Rollins, his strong sound, reminiscent of Coleman Hawkins, bopper from deep within his heart, young and eager to create a hole in the world, the laid-back, but still driving rhythmic aggressive phrasing, yet beautiful tonal melodies, harmonic thinking that was both modern but still very very traditional and bop-like...

I love Count Basie big band, with Lester and Herschel on tenors, Sweets Edison on trumpet, the great rhythmic section, Walter Page, Freddie Green, the great Papa Joe Jones, and the best from the best, Basie's playful piano, so in contrast with the strength of the big band...


I love Ellington's harmonies, the color of his big band, which only he alone was able to create...

And I love many, countless others, Bird, Bud, Diz, Hawk, Teddy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Lady Day...

What am I to do, to keep playing this beautiful music, but still find my own voice without copying anything that has already been played by someone..? Is there still enough space to create something new even without these boundaries of swing and bebop? Has it not been all said already?

Sometimes I wonder why I spent the lonely nights, dreaming of a song...
A melody that is both old and new, a voice of a nightingale that has never been heard before...

Sometime I wonder...