The selection “Live at the M/Darbnīca Vol. 1” is a project unprecedented in the history of Latvian jazz, which collects analog tapes of current domestic and also some foreign colleagues’ concert recordings in the currently leading jazz concert venue in Riga – cultural space “M/Darbnīca”. The presentation of this record was also held in this institution on Saturday evening.
“In the future, only records will remain,” emphasizes Mareks Ameriks, head of the “Jersika Records” publishing house, referring to the conversation with jazz saxophonist and teacher Indrikis Veitner. “How exciting it would be to hear, for example, the music of the first Latvian jazz festival “KIKOK” from 1962, or the music played in the Riga jazz clubs “Allegro” in the 1970s or “Hamlets” in the 1990s, if only someone had recorded and published it … We created a small recording room behind the scenes of “M/Darbnīcas” and started recording a series of concerts regularly.”
Thus, 13 jazz concerts were recorded between August of last year and January of this year, and this record (it turns out that there are two) includes one piece from each. As a result, a very diverse selection of modern Latvian jazz has come together, in which you can hear both “post-bop” and “neo-bop” styles, spiritual and electric jazz, experimental jazz and avant-garde, as well as funk and even “bluegrass” influences. All pieces are original music performed by leading Latvian jazz musicians, who have also involved friends from other countries in their performances. It should be noted that the compilation quite symbolically ends with the composition “Hope” performed by the “Double Yuriy Trio” – it is a collaboration of the domestic drummer Ivars Harutyunyan with the Ukrainians Yuriy Seredin (keyboards) and Yuriy Natsvlishvili (double bass). “Hope is like a ray of light, it is faith in all that is good and bright. Let the music strengthen us and let Ukraine win the victory that is so important for all of us today!” the publishers of that record.
A really wide spectrum is represented in the selection, starting from such experimenters as the Kārļis Auziņas trio or the “MASA” project to the king of vibrophones Miķelis Dzenuškas with his “Victory Boulevard”. There are very well-known names, such as the Kārlis Vanags group or the Matīs Čudars trio, but there are also names that are less known or completely unknown to a wider audience, such as the Paulas Pokratnieks quartet or the reviewer’s biggest white spot in this selection, Alisa Golovacka’s “Orbitron”. The same amplitude is also in diversity: there are compositions that everyone can understand, for example, the excellent “Elvis” of the band “Lupa”, the already mentioned “Medus Bauska” of the trio of Matīs Čudars.
or Ata Anderson’s “Variation 1”, but there are also compositions that, due to their complexity, can (or even cannot) be listened to completely with great pain, and the most striking examples in this list are Vestards Šimkus with the ensemble “Endless Roar”, as well as Livas Dumpes sextet.
But the most important thing – in 30, 50 or 60 years, no one will be able to complain and moan that “how exciting it would be to hear what sounded in the 20s of the 21st century in “M/Darbnīki”, if only someone had recorded and published it…” Here it is! Recorded and released!
2023-11-26 21:01:37
#Review #Selection #Live #MWorkshop #Vol
