The event, organized by the Korean Cultural Center, was the first joint concert of jazz artists and performers of traditional music from both countries. The performance in Warsaw was a part of the MosaiKOREA ensemble's European tour, during which they also appeared at Jazztopad Festival in Wrocław (22nd November), as well as in Budapest (28th November) and Berlin (1st December).
MosaiKOREA, consisting of nine musicians, is one of the most colorful phenomena on the Korean music scene. The artists, playing both the European and traditional Korean instruments, perform music deriving from the nineteenth-century genre called sanjo ("scattered melodies"), enriching it with elements of jazz improvisation.
Sanjo is a type of music specifically intended for solo performances, characterized by a high degree of improvisation. The movements are devided into different rhythms, typically starting with slower pace before gradually picking up speed. The inspiration behind the MosaiKOREA was the idea of creating a new kind of ensemble that overlays these rhythms on traditional or contemporary expressive melodies and tones. The main theme of their Warsaw concert was "Life". The program included pieces based on traditional Korean music, thematically referring to elements such as Yin and Yang, fire, wood, wind and earth, as well as compositions that were performed jointly with the Mosaik ensemble.
Mosaik is a Polish ensemble performing world music on historical and ethnic instruments, combining Polish early and folk music with the tradition of the Orient. At the Palladium club in Warsaw both ensembles played traditional Polish and Korean pieces in contemporary arrangements, concluding their concert with joint jam session.
We kindly invite you to watch the footage of the concert and the interview with Mr Marcin Jacoby, Project Asia Manager, and Mr In Jae-Jin, Director of the Jarasum International Jazz Festival:
Programme of the concert:
- Traditional Korean music: FIRE
The piece performed on traditional Korean percussion instruments, referring to the shamanic ritual called 'Byeolsingut'. - Traditional Korean music + Jazz: FIRE
The piece performed on traditional Korean percussion instruments, bass and saxophone. - Jazz
Jazz in the style of traditional Korean music. - Korean-Polish Jazz Mosaics: Rano Rano
Rano Rano - piece by the Mosaik ensemble. Joint jam session of Polish and Korean musicians. - Korean-Polish Jazz Mosaics: Sinawi
The piece with a steady pace, based on improvisation, performed on instruments such as Korean harp or Piri flute. 'Sinawi' in rough translation means "orderly chaos".
Organizers: Korean Cultural Center, Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, Culture.pl
See also: