2009

Marcin OLES

double bass player, improviser

composer, jazzman

Improvisation and pure acoustic sound, virtuosity and many inspirations, from jazz to European tradition of sound and composition technique  - that’s my genre. I am in between all my inspirations.

“..believe me, this guy is among the best you can hear on the instrument these days, both pizzi and arco. His touch is both elegant and powerful, his improvisations melodic and creative..”

    Improvisation is as important to me as the personal expression of the music, the sound, the technique and an inspired collaboration with outstanding musicians. Technique is supposed to provide freedom and self-confidence, but for me it is more than that. It is a mean of expression, constant quest for perfection and a will to go beyond the boundaries.  

    My superior goals has always been to master the technique for double bass in a truly virtuoso manner, both in regard to pizzicato - a playing technique that involves plucking the strings developed mainly in jazz - and arco, i.e. with the use of a bow, which has been brought to perfection in classical music.  

    However, I had no other choice but to learn these techniques from the beginning after I graduated the school, due to the fact that in Polish music education the pizzicato technique is completely omitted, and the bowing technique is based on a totally different phrasing, articulation and sound.

    My other superior goal is to develop my own, individual language which would differentiate me from others. It is a search of my own sound, phrasing and articulation, my own solution in the improvised language both in a group and regardless of the context. Yet, it is very difficult to achieve, as there are no directions, signposts available on that road. What is more, it is not very easy to find companions for such journey - as many marked out routes are already at hand. And as its relevance is being questioned by the others, it is also hard to believe, especially in the beginning, that this road leads somewhere.

   

    The third goal, which I became aware of at a later stage, was to play my own music. The music close to my heart and my perception of art. I believe that stylistics is a matter of choice and not possibility. In my view, music is an art and not entartainment, which panders to popular tastes and subjects to the passing trends. In my case, playing my own music consists of following the structure of a piece which is being constanlty and creatively developed. The improvisation is based on melodic pattern, harmony, structure, and the composer’s technique.

    The music described above have always fascinated me and this is what I want to play. I am trying to constantly develop my technique and the general knowledge about music - its structure, its form, its construction - and I strongly believe in continuous evolution of  music.

Discography (as a leader):

Marcin Oles – "Ornette on bass"  |NotTwo Records, 2002|

Marcin Oles – "Walk songs"  |Fenommedia, 2006|