Kollar/Cox/Raineri/Truffaz tour day 1.
Beginning of the tour
Our short tour started in Krakow. I met Rick there and spent 2 free days to overcome Jet lag. He wanted to see Auschwitz and Oskar Schindler's factory. It was my 6th visit to Auschwitz and maybe my 4th visit to the Oskar Schindler factory. Rick had read a lot about WWII. I always remember Block 11 for the horror of Doctor Mengele. It was the building in which he did all those atrocities on people. Even after the 6th time it was really unpleasant. We didn't finish our visit and walked away early. In the evenings, in Rick's hotel room, we went over possible versions of the repertoire we had arranged weeks ago. We also had a joint Zoom video with Paolo. Late in the evening we had two beers and went to bed.
On our third day in Krakow, Paolo Raineri and our sound engineer Arnaud Mercier landed. Arnaud was Jon Hassell's stage sound engineer. Our team was almost complete. I must also mention Anita Pócsova, who put together all the logistics of our tour. From the tickets to the complete daily schedule.
We had a long journey from Krakow to Trnava, where Jan Sudzina's Hevhetia fest was running. We arrived a little before ten in the evening. I parked the car at the Max Plaza Hotel and we went to dinner. We met with Jan and Erik Truffaz. It's always a very funny meeting with Erik. We laugh a lot and reminisce.
First concert in Small Berlin
We had sound check at 9:30 in the morning. We were pretty tired. It took us almost three hours to set up. We went through the playlist that Rick and I had prepared in Krakow. Erik Truffaz had a problem with the fact that Paolo is also a trumpet player. He said he didn't want them both on stage. Let either him or Paolo be on stage. Because he had a duet with Paolo Fresu in the past and it didn't go well. I told him that Paolo would not leave the stage. He can adapt to Eric's playing, not push him and take his place. Erik finally agreed. After the sound check we had to unload all the set up stuff on the tables and move it around for the other musicians. We don't like to do that. The soundcheck kind of wasn't for us that way. Before the gig we have to decompose things again to the original place. Little setups get changed and it's extra stressful. Whatever. We had plenty of time before our gig. Paolo and I went to see the Synagogue where the Hevhetia fest program was running. We met Erik Truffaz there and of course we laughed out loud. With Erik you just can't help it.
In the evening we arrived for a quick sound check and started playing. I don't like it when the audience is present during the soundcheck. I want the first note they hear to be a real, concert tone. That's the downside of single stage festivals. We tire the audience with different sounds during the soundcheck. Rick and I agreed to start the concerts the way we used to do with Jon Hassell. We start from nothing. It could be the sound of a guitar tuning, or it could be just a bark on a trumpet. That way we all go into silence and start playing...
I decided to moderate the concerts. It is, after all, music that is not very common. I talked about the Pentimento painting technique and fourth world music and the context in which we will be playing.
It was a very careful concert. Everybody was finding their place. We had a subtle rhythmic pulse in each piece that Rick controlled. He's incredibly original in his processing of audio. Paolo was very good at adapting to Eric. He left him space and more or less created musical surfaces. I was left with the baritone and the bass lines. From my point of view it was not a very successful concert. I watched Erik and Paolo concentrate on the music. They leave themselves space and leave space for Rick. I always have that feeling of great responsibility on stage. To organize the tour, to get the musicians together, to unshackle, to communicate with the audience. I want to make it work as best as possible on stage. But it's music. We evoke the muse with our playing and sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it comes in large doses and sometimes it comes in small doses. Sometimes it comes in none. A lot of times it's just our subjective feeling. Well, in this case, mine. When I don't feel good about a gig, I don't like to go downstage amongst the audience. All the positive feelings feel false to me and I feel an inner disappointment. That's how I felt in Trnava. Paolo told me that the concert was a success. We were looking for each other. We were trying to see how much our new material could handle.
These projects are created directly in front of the audience. In the end, the people in the audience actually have a unique opportunity to see the musicians in their initial reactions to each other. It's basically pure creation. After the first gig, it was clear to me that my role in this project was bass line, baritone guitar and midi pickup controlled Fender piano.
The next morning we were awoken in our rooms for the second time by the sound of drills. We were to sleep three nights at the Max Plaza Hotel. We cancelled the last one. We decided to go to Martin, where a second concert awaited us. Rick slept in room number 11. It reminded me of something...