Music Is An Universal Language
Interview with Joachim Mencel by Pawel Baranowski translated by Lori Wallet
Interview courtesy of Pawel Baranowski and Diapazon.pl

PB-Joachim Mencel is a well-known name in Krakow . You perform here often, most recently in a trio. It seems to me- maybe I'm wrong- that you let yourself be forgotten in Poland . It's been quite awhile since the release of your last recording (not counting " Colorado ", recorded with Brad Terry since it's not available in Poland ). Could you tell me what's changed musically since the recordings for GOWI? Tell me something about the trio that you're playing in now.

JM- A lot has changed since my first recording. I'm improving my piano skills all the time as well as my understanding of what playing music is. In these years I've written lots of pieces in various styles. I've also been the arranger for several projects, produced some and as a sideman I've been invited to play concerts with lots of groups. Honestly, I had so many offers that I didn't have time to form my own group. Now, being rich in experience, I decided to change that situation. While I was a student I had a trio with Krzysiek Mroz and Marcin Jahr. Now is the time to get back to that.

PB- Is this the "dream" group for Joachim Mencel?

JM- There is no such thing as a "dream" group for me. Yes, I'm closer to the goal that I've set for myself, which is total self-expression combined with quality. Some kind-of symbiosis of form and content which compliment each other. As in a classic jazz piano trio we have piano, bass and percussion. There's been plenty of that type of trio throughout history. My current trio has grown out of that tradition, but I had a desire to find my own voice (my sound) in the midst of the limitations that come with a piano trio. I've written pieces where the instruments play very un-standard. I bring in elements of other types of music like modern-classical or ethnic. Most of those elements are the result of me being a fan of music. I listen to lots of different styles. In most of what I listen to, piano doesn't even exist. That helps me to have a fresh outlook on the role of my instrument when I play. I want my music to be very expressive and decided. There's an element of risk in the newest stuff and it helps give some spice to our concerts. The trio I've mentioned is called "JM Trio". Other than myself it includes Krzysztof Pacan on bass and Arek Skolik on drums.

PB- You mentioned the music you listen to- usually we're interested in that- do you want to give away what you've been listening to lately? What was interesting?

JM- I listen to so many different styles of music that it'd be hard to be on top of it all. If I have to name a few recordings that have moved me recently, it would be the new "acoustic" Wayne Shorter, the group Satlah-album Exodus, an Arab-Jewish folk group Bustan Abraham from Israel- the album Hamsa, two great Gospel groups Kirk Franklin and Fred Hammond- especially the double album Pages of Life. Of course I listen to a lot of classic jazz as well as other styles of music, plus a lot of classical music from the oldest to the newest.

PB- You talked a bit about your new trio with Pacan and Skolik, which I had the pleasure of hearing in Krakow ’s club Piec'Art. Do you have any plans to record?

JM- We'll be in the studio in December (2002) and prepare the stuff for the new album in stages. I have a tentative offer from a publisher, but nothing is set.

PM- You've worked with not only Polish artists, there was Oleg Kirejev and David Friedman and probably most of all Brad Terry. Could you tell me what playing with artists from other nations brings to you?

JM- Music is a universal language. Borders cease to have a right to exist. I've had a few very interesting experiences communicating artistically with musicians with whom I couldn't speak a word, not even in pantomime. The opposite has also happened that I couldn't play a note with someone who spoke Polish. In your question you mentioned artists that I've played with often. It's very interesting that those artists are also developing, sometimes in unexpected directions. This year I played with each of them. Oleg Kirejev invited me to his group at the Festival of Four Cultures in Lódz , Poland and I realized again that he's a great, original composer. I performed with David Friedman at a festival in Wroclaw , Poland . Most the time I played his compositions, but this time he played my piece "Ta Gora" (That Mountain) that was dedicated to him. I should add that David was one of the first jazz musicians that I listened to.

Unfortunately, I only played with Brad Terry once this year (normally we play 10 to 50 concerts a year). That one concert was at the Clarinet Festival in Krakow . He is a musician that has unbelievable reflexes. His reaction time in live music is supernatural! I've played hundreds of concerts with him, but he still amazes me. In addition he's got this warm non-clarinet sound. If we talk of dreams- Brad Terry is my dream partner in a piano-clarinet duo…

PB- I know you've played with folk artists as well like Joszko Broda or Kieran Duddy from Ireland- tell us about that.

JM- I'm interested in people and culture. Joszko, like Brad, can't read notes so we understand each other on a totally different plane than with musicians who have a music degree. Music shouldn't beautify concert halls nor should recordings just enrich people. That's my humanism. Jazz is only 100 years old and the music culture of the world is so much older. I'm interested in many styles of music and folk is one of the most important for me. It's wonderful that folk music doesn't exist just in the sphere of music, but it's truly an art, with elements of improvisation even. Most of all it's real and natural music. Think about what music our ancestors listened to, say 300 years ago. Everyone carries the truth of that in his genes. It's worth finding out.

PB- Aside from jazz you also play "religious music" together with a band called New Life M'. Rumor has it that you're a man of deep faith.

JM- On the one hand I hate that phrase "religious music" and on the other it's the ultimate compliment. So…. in the Middle Ages there was no such thing as "religious music". Everything that was written by musicians was created in the light of God's face, looking toward eternity, with a view of man's place in history and harmony with God where the spiritual elements rise above the physical. If that's religious music then I hope all music that I’m creating, whether it's instrumental, instrumental-vocal, is that type of music. It's not important if we verbalize things or not. Anyway, I protest against putting my albums into a box called religious music. In general, the arts, which are the salt of culture, something that deeply touches man's sense in life, are relegated to the margins of the music market. Something that is so basic becomes just our "Sunday responsibility".

PB- Do you think that faith helps in presenting jazz? After all, its roots reach back to Gospel on one side and Coltrane's prayer recordings, like A Love Supreme, on the other.

JM- Everything that we create has two dimensions, material and transcendent-spiritual. It's easier to talk about the material aspect of creativity. The spiritual beauty is something that touches our souls and in a way doesn't come from us. We produce water which is then turned into wine.

PB- Your concerts show you as a man very emotionally involved in his music and the audiences like that. Does music that's honest- or even good- require emotional involvement?

JM- I take care that my emotions are always good. The listener shouldn't get a dose of my bad emotions, even when something bad does happen or I'm irritated. That's my professional standard. We shouldn't sow negativity. I always try to give the best I have and be 100% in what I play. I also expect that from other musicians. That's probably why after concerts I'm usually exhausted. Whatever.. That’s my life! Tired but happy!

PB- Going further with that theme of watching and hearing you on stage- apart from a certain optimism, or maybe "good emotions" that you mentioned I have the feeling (and not only I) that I'm in touch with "authentic music" when I hear your music, that what you play flows directly out of you.

JM- The issue of what's authentic is connected to several very difficult questions. Who are we? How can I be myself? Do we want to be ourselves or would we rather be someone else? You have to wrestle with that to be authentic. First you have to fight with yourself, with your habits, with what's become normal for you. In the case of pianists even our fingers have their habits and the keyboard is just black and white. All of that limits us and you can either give in to it or try in some way to be free from it. What I mean is, that the road from our musical imagination to the material realization of it should be as short as possible.

PB- What is your creative inspiration?

JM- Life is inspiration for me. The thing that connects life with music is time. It can be shocking where it leads us. In the music that I play I want to program time in such a way that it doesn't rule over me but that I would be able to hold it back in some way. That's my artistic goal.

PB- Finally, now and then you hear critics, and some musicians, complaining that jazz is finished. Do you have some thoughts on that? Do you want to share anything with us?

JM- I don't feel like the right person to go into the state of jazz today and its state of health. I am not a jazz purist and I don't want to play music only of a defined style. I think much wider when I think about music. I've heard certain jazz concerts and felt that jazz is finished for those musicians. What I heard was cloned, like from a copy machine. It was a dead language that I'd compare to Latin that is required in many areas of study. People study that language, but can't communicate in it. Latin can't even evolve because no one speaks it on a daily basis. Traps like that exist in music education as well as in intuitive music presented as avant-garde.

I've heard lots of musicians ( and not those from the cover of Down Beat) for whom jazz is the absolute foundation, it's the real language of understanding for them. Jazz and its tradition is the biggest contribution of the USA to world culture. It's too bad that Americans' don't value that. Jazz started there as a connection between different cultural elements. That inheritance is everyone's now. Poles also have their roots in jazz. Brits or Italians play Bach beautifully, not just Germans. So jazz can flourish in lots of countries as well. It depends on respect for music, respect for the listener, on how deep we want to go into the nature of music and knowing ourselves. Sometimes it's just a matter of a personal decision.

by © Pawel Baranowski