My first diaries #1

The first part of my early diaries

1. 4. 2011 / 22:44

I'm home with Barborka on maternity leave until 4pm every day. David jr. is a first grader.

I've had to set up a routine that I will follow. It doesn't have to be adhered to chronologically, but met. It's the minimum. If there is time to extend specific points, ok. Shortening them is not an option. It won't go without that. I'll quickly stunt and get lazy. Everything can be done even with a baby at home.

• 1 hour - 60 bpm workout with the clock on the wall. After ten minutes rhythmic scales and long and short notes. Every ten minutes a change.

• 1 hour - free playing and improvisation

• 1 hr - reading literature (autobiographies - Davis, Shostakovich, Tarkovsky, Bergman, ...) 1 hr - English

• 2 hrs - working on emails and booking concerts, approaching filmmakers

• 1 hour - analysis of guitar solos

• 30 min. - string plucking

• 2 hrs - watch a good film, analyse the music

  
  

23. 10. 2011 / 05:21

The first tour with Gergő Borlai turned out great. He is a very funny and humble person. Before the first rehearsal I was waiting for him in Prešov in front of my father's rehearsal room.

He was supposed to arrive with the bass player Gergő Baranyi. I was really nervous. Baranyi didn't care either, because Borlai is a legend in Hungary. They were supposed to play together for the first time in our trio.

Playing with Borlai is not easy. He plays a lot of polyrhythms. I asked him to give me some exercises for that. He prepared me drums in MIDI 4/4 format, 60 bpm rhythm. He gradually added polyrhythms in it. It takes about ten minutes. With that, I have to stand to play, for example, the theme from Smoke on The Water. That's how I get the rhythm and the confidence in it. After the tour, he invited me to his home in Mátra. A small modest old house with a huge garden and a sauna. We listened to Frank Zappa from morning till morning, drank everything he had at home. From time to time Borlai's neighbour from the village, the "pig killer", would join us. He had a huge pig named Szilvi. Every time we went out into the garden, Szilvi would start clucking loudly, jumping and coming up to the fence.

25. 10. 2011 / 12:00

It's my birthday. In Prague, at Terry's Socks, they have the last of Andrei Tarkovsky's book Sculpting in Time. I have to have it. Tarkovsky's life is a great inspiration to me.

27. 10. 2011 / 23:09

I got off the phone with Borlai. It looks like we're going to do a project with his girlfriend Andrea Ladanyi. Andrea is a very famous choreographer in Hungary. I would also invite India Czajkowska, whose music and voice in the movie Summer love (Karel Roden and Val Kilmer) impressed me very much. Gergő tells me that my originality is not in fusion jazz, but just in the sound I make and the feel. Sometimes I play the guitar differently than the guitarists he plays with and listens to. That's what he enjoys about me. We're going to try that in the Artrance multimedia project. Playing in a completely different way. That's where he sees my way.

Gergő becomes my best friend.

22. 3. 2012 / 23:48

I met Lenka Dusilova under very funny circumstances. We played with Kollar Borlai Baranyi at the Jazzinec festival in Trutnov (CZ) and Lenka played there with Baromantika band. We met at a soundcheck and got to know each other. During her concert we were sitting in the dressing room and each of us was playing Angry Birds on our phones. Gergő went to the bathroom to play and light up. There were smoke detectors all over the building. Suddenly, during the concert, there was a Attention, attention,” announcement. Fire, clear the building!"
Gergő opened the toilet door, he didn't understand Czech, so he asked me what was going on. We thought his cigarette had caused it. He didn't care. Even one floor below, water came down from the ceiling to put out the fire. Fortunately, it was found to have been caused by a steam engine during Lenka's performance, the smoke from which had been carried by a draft one floor below where the alarm had not been turned off. So it wasn't because of Gergő. We laughed about it with Lenka. Eventually she invited me to Prague to play together and maybe even create something.

30. 8. 2012 / 22:39

I recently returned from Oslo, Norway. Before that I sent Eivind Aarset the audio from Project Artrance (Borlai, Andrea Ladanyi, India Czajkowska and myself). It was after almost two years of sending him recordings of my trio. Apparently he wasn't interested at the time. I also dedicated a track on my album Equation of Time to him. It's called Too far to Oslo. He didn't write back, or he wrote to me that I had a nice sound. He only responded to the audio from Artrance and invited me to Norway.
I waited for Eivind in Oslo at 9am outside the hotel. He picked me up and we went to his studio, first by boat to the other side of the city and about 45 minutes by car. We spent several hours in the studio. We jammed and played his songs as well. Eivind's wife offered us cake. On the way to sleep downtown, I asked Eivind if we would ever play together again. He replied:

"Sure, you can play with my band as a guest."

I am very kicked and inspired. To play so close next to him. I recorded everything and I'll analyze it in detail right at home. It was the anniversary of the Air Force in Oslo. Planes, fighter jets, new, old, ancient, everywhere. The symphony orchestra, whose trumpet player was using Ableton, was doing the musical accompaniment. They played incredibly well.

1. 2. 2013 / 09:21

I'm texting with Eivind. I'm starting to put on paper thoughts about my solo album, which I'm going to record in Warsaw soon. Eivind promised to help me anytime and with anything... So I write to him to see if he can record some guitars for me. The theme of the album will be my son, who is coming out of his second operation. It's a painful and desperate time. I have written down feelings and specific situations (waiting in the waiting room, second surgery, emergency room, ...).
I will record in Tadeusz Sudnik's studio, who used to play live electronics with Tomasz Stańko. Lenka Dusilová will also come. I want to record something completely different from what I've done so far. A solo album, an audio story. A different way of playing, a different guitar sound, and sounds that don't even resemble a guitar. I'll probably lose a few fans, but I feel like it will push me further. And maybe even beyond the borders of Slovakia. So I have to change the recording environment as well. I'll try Warsaw.

25. 7. 2013 / 06:44

Today we have a concert with Artrance Performance in Košice. Gergő Borlai, Eivind Aarset, Andrea Ladanyi, Lenka Dusilová and me. So Eivind is already with me in the project... Unbelievable feeling. He flew at two in the morning from the festival in Italy to Košice on three planes. I took him from the airport to the hotel and we went to rehearsals right away. After the rehearsal, Eivind did a workshop. I wrote everything down. I can't wait to start working on it. Eivind is a master of the modern guitar! There were only five other musicians at the workshop, I don't understand where the others were. After the rehearsal, I was with Eivind buying a black t-shirt. In the room he told me he was recording guitars for the Berserk project, with Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson playing some of the drums.
I was inwardly jealous. I have to work on myself, keep an open mind and carve out my own way of playing. That's the only way I can get to where he is. Originality is the rarest thing, in my opinion.

30. 10. 2013 / 14:22

I'm coming from the capital on the train. I was at Miro Remo's (film director) to watch the rough material for the upcoming film Comeback. A well-known artist there told me yesterday:

"You have no chance of getting abroad without contact with Bratislava. First you have to be big at home and then you can try something abroad."

I don't think so... I'm working on my English.

30. 8. 2013 / 10:33

Eivind played a gig at the London jazz festival with the Italian band Berserk. He mentioned me and Borlai to the musicians in the dressing room. We immediately became friends on Facebook. I was texting with the drummer Simon Cavina. We agreed that I would come to Italy to see him and we would play. I borrowed a car from Marek Salka, took Janka and my friend Petr Ondrus. I took a kind of (un)forced vacation. Peter was Janka's tour guide while I played with Simon.

Fifteen hours of long driving, but it was worth it. Simone plays differently than Borlai, and that suits me for the new project. Different band, different sound, different music. Simone is planning a mini-tour for us early next year and will also bring trumpeter Paolo Raineri. I'm looking forward to it! Will I have a new band?

25. 12. 2013 / 17:23

I was looking through an old hard drive and found the script for the movie Encounter that we made with Ivan Paluch. We wrote it with a young aspiring filmmaker, Mikhail Verner. We were inspired by the short story The Needle by Dušan Mitana /famous slovak writer) . I remember, ...when I phoned Mitana. I flooded him with compliments and said I wanted to use his short story as a subject for a film. He asked me for money. My answer was:

"We don't have any."

He said:

"Sure... I agree!"

We filmed in the Kopytovská valley for eight days. It was challenging, but at the same time it was a great school and a lot of fun. Ivan cracked one joke after another. We worked twenty hours a day. Before filming we had to prepare lights in the forest, dig holes in the plain for the cameraman, who was the one and only Jaris. We shot for about eight hours a day, the rest of the time we moved cameras, lights, scenes.... I played the tramp and Dávid jr. played Ivan's son. I'm going to text Ivan, his wife will read it to him. I hope they're well.

Film overview

31. 12. 2013 / 14:21

On the 30th of June my first solo album was released in Hevhetia records. I spent two months finishing it. Hours of improvisation and then cut, cut, cut. I recorded in Warsaw and then at home, in my studio. The album was simply called The Son. The first review in Slovakia - one star (out of five), but several European music portals and magazines ranked it among the top records of 2013.

In the USA, the album was in Guitar Moderne magazine's TOP 2013 among the greats (Bill Frisel, Pat Metheny). Based on that I was invited to America to play some solo concerts in 2014. I'll be taking trumpeter Paolo Raineri with me. There will be two of us for that. We'll probably play in L.A. as well. Hans Zimmer lives there somewhere, I think...

19. 1. 2014 / 17:42

I just had a chat with Lorenzo Felliciati from Italy. Lorenzo is Eivind Aarset's band mate in the Berserk project. He has a suggestion that we make a trio together with Gergő Borlai. I wrote to Gergő, but he doesn't have time. He's recording an album with Gary Willis from Tribal Tech.

On Lorenzo's Facebook profile I found some pictures of him and Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson. Crimson played in Prešov in 1996. This concert is considered by some people in Prešov as the second most important event in the city, after the electricity. I know Pat from the KTU project and Tony Levin Stickmen. Lorenzo and Pat have recorded an album in the past. I asked if he'd give me Mastelotto's email, I'd send him my music, but Lorenzo says they don't give out emails like that. I guess he's right. That's why I'll send the stuff to him first and he'll forward it to Pat.

20. 1. 2014 / 18:00

I'm back from Italy. We have a new band called The Blessed Beat. Simone Cavina, Paolo Raineri and me. Very excited. Great to improvise with them. I want us to record an album. In Italy, almost all the gigs are after midnight, which is a bit of a disadvantage. But I like their dining. It takes longer. My lunch at home is quick, sometimes I eat standing up. I have a lot to learn. Culture...

1. 2. 2014 / 12:00

"Beauty is a symbol of truth" - Andrei Tarkovsky

02. 3. 2014 / 05:22

I got an email from Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson!!!

"I really like what I see and hear on your site. I will be with Crimson ProjeKct in Warsaw. I'll put you on the guest list?"

19. 3. 2014 / 00:01

Jaris and I are going to Warsaw to see Crimson ProjeKct in concert. Marek Salka lent us a Range Rover. I hope we will be on the guestlist and I will manage to meet Pat.

Of course, when we enter, at first they can't find us on the guestlist... Luckily, they find the "DAVE KOLLAR+1" tags down in the drawer, after about ten minutes. We crowded in amongst the people there and lingered.

The concert started. On stage I see Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and the Adrian Belew Power trio. Unbelievable feeling...Pat left me his phone number and texted me during the concert:

"Are you here? Do you like the concert?"

After the concert, I texted him back and told him I'd wait outside while they finished the autograph session. He immediately called me to come down and take me to the dressing room. Adrian Belew was there with a bouquet of flowers. I managed to flatter myself that he had inspired me and that he was very good and a mega-working musician. He answered me sternly: "Keep it up and keep working!"

I asked Pat if we'd play together sometime, but he said he was busy for now. I was counting on it a little. I wondered whether or not to give him The Son CD. After all, there are no drums.... In the end I gave him the CD and we said goodbye.

It was definitely onto something and maybe it started something...

I still met India Czajkowska in the corridor.

22. 3. 2014 / 18:44

I set myself the task of teaching eleven-year-old David and his peers about music and film. I organize walks, ask them what they listen to, tell them about Jimi Hendrix, Sting, Jackson, Prince... Stanley Kubrick, Tarkovsky and old Czech films. They seem interested. I'm trying to get them to believe in themselves, to do whatever they're passionate about honestly. And to not let them deal with what someone else tells them to do. The boys have already started writing scripts and filming something short in the meadow near the school.

It just occurred to me how it was a few years ago when I started doing music for plays and theaters. I got in touch with Juraj Jakubisko by phone. I called him and told him that I was doing music for plays and I wanted to show him my work. I knew that he was planning the film Svätopluk. I suggested to him a different musical point of view. Let it not be an orchestra, but something else that he didn't have yet. He said he would be in Prešov because they were going to look for locations. I had yet to hear from him. I don't know exactly why, but we never met.