Melting Pot // Omawi

What about the future of improvised music? No answer, but exciting insights are offered by the concert with the Melting Pot project, which annually brings together five outstanding young improvising musicians* from five European cities on stage for the first time - including this year the Argentinian saxophonist Camila Nebbia from Berlin. Immediately afterwards, Omawi, an improv trio from Amsterdam, will take over, with bassist Wilbert de Joode and drummer Onno Govaert mirroring the multidimensional playing of pianist Marta Warelis.

19:00

Melting Pot

(NO, AT, DE, BE, PL)

Every year, the European cooperation project Melting Pot brings together a new constellation of young improvising musicians* who share a stage without long rehearsal times in front of an audience and create musical creations in real time. This year, Jazzfest Berlin, Handelsbeurs Concertzaal (Gent), Jazztopad (Wrocław), Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria (Oslo) and the International Jazz Festival Saalfelden have each invited a musician from their region to participate. The composition this year promises a particularly exciting concert experience when these five up-and-coming musicians* spontaneously find their common language: the Polish drummer Hubert Zemler (Wrocław), the Norwegian violinist Tuva Halse (Oslo), the Iranian clarinetist Mona Matbou Riahi (Saalfelden), the Dutch bassist Louise van den Heuvel (Ghent) and the Argentinean saxophonist Camila Nebbia (Berlin) will be on stage. The attraction and special feature of this initiative is that a wide variety of artists, most of whom do not know each other, improvise together without the constraint of common contexts, bridging different styles and origins to create something new live.

Line-up

Tuva Halse - violin

Mona Matbou Riahi - clarinet

Camila Nebbia - saxophone

Louise van den Heuvel - electric bass

Hubert Zemler - drums

A cooperation between Nasjonal Jazzscene Victoria (Oslo), International Jazz Festival Saalfelden, Berliner Festspiele / Jazzfest Berlin, Handelsbeurs (Gent), Jazztopad Festival (Wrocław)

20:30 / World premiere

Omawi: "Waive"

(PL, NL)

Marta Warelis, who performed at Jazzfest Berlin in 2021 as part of Dave Douglas' Secular Palms project, is one of the most exciting pianists the creative Amsterdam jazz scene has produced in recent years. The Polish-born pianist's distinctive features include her remarkable wealth of ideas, combined with a wide range of different stylistic devices. Utilizing her multifaceted nature, Warelis harkens back to the sound of New Dutch Swing when she shows off her skills as a post-bop pianist with the Xavier Pamplona Septet, or practices lush melodic improvisations as part of the Douglas' Quintet. Warelis is no less adept at pursuing her own sonic experimentalism.

Warelis most recently demonstrated her improvisational qualities on prepared piano with her 2022 solo album "A Grain of Earth," putting her on par with Berlin's Magda Mayas. But few projects reflect her aesthetic as comprehensively as Omawi, a trio featuring established bassist Wilbert de Joode and energetic young drummer Onno Govaert - both equally central figures on the Amsterdam scene.

With the album "TK," their first release in eight years, the trio has audibly grown musically, while also harkening back to the light-footed improvisational style that characterized their earlier work. All three are adept at conjuring new riffs and grooves seemingly out of thin air, developing them further, and deconstructing them when necessary. Omawi's extraordinary dynamics - which sometimes come up with very delicate gestures, then again surprise with sound cascades that get under the skin - are based on sonic movements that always form an organic whole.



Line-up

Marta Warelis - piano

Wilbert de Joode - double bass

Onno Govaert - drums