Debra:
In Marek Pędziwiatr, there is a connection between the past and the present; the history of jazz and the African-American musicians who created it and Polish innovators from Chopin to Krzysztof Komeda and Czesław Niemen. Marek is a hub, a central force pulling in these golden threads of jazz, hip hop, classical music, the avant-garde and Slavic folk. But his interest in weaving these genres together is driven by the human experience.
Born in the port city of Świnoujście, but now based in Wrocław, Marek is an award-winning musician and composer who plays piano and keyboards as well as being a vocalist and DJ. His background in the '90s scene of sampling, rapping and beats music has blossomed into a sophisticated and authentic jazz that crosses boundaries. He is the co-founder of EABS (Electro-Acoustic Beat Sessions) and the trio, Night Marks and has played with an incredible array of international musicians including co-producing the Urbanator Days' album, Beats & Pieces with the inspirational Michał Urbaniak, a major figure in jazz fusion.
Like Urbaniak, emotion is a vital aspect to any piece that Pędziwiatr composes. The identification of this almost mystical quality of melancholy in Slavic culture, explored by generations of Polish artists, also fascinates Marek and in the interview he speaks about the importance of feeling in the music he is drawn to and how he developed the opening of the composition he discusses from his album, Slavic Spirits from 2019.
Stories of his own ancestry, poetic symbols, philosophies and an expression of the complex emotion of being human run parallel to other incentives in his music. There is a deep learning he has gained through the tributes EABS has made to artists such as Miles Davis (Memorial to Miles Jazz Festival in Kielce, 2015) and the unique Sun Ra with EABS' album, Discipline of Sun Ra in 2020. There is a clear celebration of these influences and their ability to simply communicate the human spirit, in Marek's music, and in his eloquent way of speaking about it.
Coming up on Rebel Spirits.
MAREK:
My name is Marek Pędziwiatr AKA Latarnik. I'm an artist, musician, keyboardist, pianist, composer and anything which is connected to creating and improvisation.
Latarnik means the lighthouse keeper. This alias is connected to the place where I come from. I come from the northern west peak of Poland, the island called Świnoujście, which is connected to Baltic Sea. The lighthouse is something really, really close to me. And when I call myself Latarnik, I feel that I'm staying close to my roots. Lighthouse is a symbol of the temporary knowledge. That's what I found in the symbols’ dictionary. This temporary knowledge is close to the idea of improvisation and improvisation is the way I live. I am Latarnik. I bring the light. Hopefully this light inspires others to cooperate.
I am the member of EABS, you can call it EABS or Electro Acoustic Beat Sessions. The composition Przywitanie słońca, we translate it to The Sun Worship comes from the album Slavic Spirits. This idea came out from our previous album Letters to Krzysztof Komeda on which we recreated his compositions through our arrangements. And we found out that there's something deeper in it. What I mean is, we found out that there was something like Slavic melancholy or Polish melancholy whatever you call it. This melancholy concept appears many times when you talk about the music coming from Poland's like the most famous Frederic Chopin, or acts from the big beat era.
Rock and roll was forbidden in Poland. So Polish musicians named rock and roll big beat. When you listen to Czesław Niemen or Skaldowie or Anawa or Stan Borys, especially their compositions from the 70s when it was hip to experiment, and there was not only rock and roll, but rock and roll was blended with jazz with avant garde and with folk music.
So where does this melancholy come from? Our manager, who is also a conceptualist, got into a deep past of our ancestors. When we were called Slavs, we were divided into tribes. And so people had their local beliefs. They were living with the rhythm of the sun and the moon. They didn't believe in one god. Each god was responsible for every aspect of life, for example, there was Leszy. If you behave good in the woods, Leszy won't get you lost. If you behave badly in the woods, Leszy could kill you, or make you lost. If a peasant dies on the field, in the noon, people believed that Południca came to get him, so the beautiful goddess who was attractive to peasants. When the peasant came closer to her at noon, she killed the peasants. These are two compositions on Slavic Spirits, Leszy and Południca. Next one is Ślęża, which is the mountain near our town of Wrocław. It was a sacred mountain where many rituals were happening. Right now at the peak of this mountain, there is a beautiful high cross which symbolizes the Christian domination. And here it goes, when the Christianity came on our Slavic lands, they took away this specific rhythm of life. They burned down all the monuments, all the symbols, and all of a sudden everything changed. And this moment is believed, according to literature, as a beginning of the Slavic melancholy. And many, many, many years have passed and Christianity is a major religion in Poland. And still there are some little elements of these things which were burned out like some rituals.
Yeah, it's a serious thing, because melancholy is like sadness, but the sadness that you cannot explain. That's why this word fits this whole story. And this is the idea of Slavic Spirits. This process of understanding the Slavic melancholy, which states in our mindsets and still appears in the arts, Slavic spirits, I can say my music is full of melancholy. Even when I try to create some happy things, there's always some tinge of sadness, but I don't have control over it. Even if the music is sad. I always love to give hope.
I was talking with Michał Urbaniak a couple of years ago. I asked him about this Slavic melancholy, because in the 70s, his music was so experimental, and he really knew how to blend our folk heritage with the American jazz, with American musicians. And when he was there, there was this Slavic melancholy thing. He told me: Marek this whole melancholy thing is like, when you… you can play happy chords, but they still sound sad. So that's the whole concept. It's a really easy explanation. However, this is true. You can play happy things, but you can feel the struggle and the sadness deep within.
Talking about Slavic spirits. I talked about Leszy, Południca, Ślęża and the last thing is Przywitanie Słońca so the sun worship. When we climb Ślęża, there's the place where we can worship the sun. So when you worship the sun, you may go through catharsis, which is a positive ending, because you clean your soul and mind out of this melancholy.
The story of Przywitanie Słońca is beginning not in Wrocław, but in Szczecin, 100 kilometers of my hometown. I used to play the gig and the festival hosts invited me to come on some chakra opening workshop. So I was like, okay, yeah, it will be lovely to try. So I went there, there was like 10 people, which I didn't know.
And we're opening chakras. I felt really good. Maybe I've even found my own chakras. I identified my chakras. And at the end, we stood in a circle. And we were instructed to sing in pairs, to sing whatever. To resonate with each other. The hosts instructed us if we don't have any idea what to sing, just imitate nature sounds and the final act was singing together. Before that, it came into my mind that it is worth to record. And yeah, we started to sing together and it stayed recorded.
It was something amazing. After all, I had to take a rest and even forgot about it. When I went back home. After a week or two, I realized that there's some space for the last composition on the Slavic Spirits album. I just took my phone and check what was recorded. I was blown away. Not everything was perfect, but there were some beautiful moments. So I went to the studio, and I started to chop these vocals and I took these the most beautiful moments and all of a sudden, I realized that this is something special. I sat on the piano and started to play some hypnotic stuff mantra. The final thing was the melody. I tried so hard to create a melody on my instruments on the piano, or since and then I started to play and sing at the same time, and the round three was just singing. And that was… that was the key.
When this melody came out of me, naturally, that was it, I felt like like, this is… this is complete and it's… an it's in happens so fast, when I just started singing, that fulfills the whole idea of Slavic Spirits, which is something organic, natural and full of human emotions, because Because pure human emotions comes from the human voice, the intention and something and something more which is hard to explain in words. So we have first chapter of Przywitanie Słońca which which is called Rytuał, sun worship ritual, which is a separate track you can hear voices, some improvised prayers, the demo voices was recorded on these workshops but on the album you can hear our voices so we as members of EABS, were really singing here and praying to our ancestors. So that's the moment when when the sun is coming up, we can start worshiping.
It's hard to say that it's a happy song? Can you say that as if it's a happy song or a sad song? I feel like this song is a pure hope that takes you out of sadness. This three note ostinato which I play on the piano was the first idea after listening to these original vocals. I think the power of this melody is it simple, it’s pure of emotions and is based on the ancient scale, which is pentatonic. So it's it's really easy but it's… but it's full of emotion full of humanity
We are listening to Jakub Kurek on the trumpet. He's exploring the mountain Ślęża when the sun is rising. There goes Tenderlonius with his beautiful solo on soprano sax.
I love Tenders’ feeling of the spiritual vibe. I think he got the natural talent of bringing the spirits of Pharoah Sanders or late John Coltrane. I had lots of questions about the ending of this song. How come this beautiful melody is not at the end. I think it's how it's supposed to be. This is like life. Life is like moments. You can feel the same thing as you felt in the past. The light goes on the only memories. This is catharsis. You have to go on. We have to move on.
Past is so important because without knowing the past, you make many mistakes in the present. It's really fascinating. Think knowing where you come from. I know the things I'm doing with my fellow musicians, we have bright intentions. We don't think about the money, the money, it just happens. We just want to spread the message and be honest. That's why we think a lot about the past we take things or stories or music from the past and we try to translate the past into presents. My name is Marek Pędziwiatr and this is my favourite composition Przywitanie Słońca.