Adam Simmons with Komeda, jazz and pierogi RR2020_Adam Simmons_Komeda

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Welcome to the Victorian Seniors Festival, In the Groove, Radio Reimagined in 2020. This project has been produced on the lands of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging and welcome all First Nations people listening today.

As part of our music series, please Adam Simmons with Komeda, Jazz and Pierogi.

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[Polish ]. Hello, I'm Adam Simmons and I love pierogi, paczki and jazz. I'm going to share some insights into my latest project, Zatoczka. This concert was premiered late last year at Deakin Edge in Federation Square at the centre of Melbourne for the inaugural Polish music day as a tribute Krzysztof Komeda.

Described as 's most important jazz artist, pianist Krzysztof Komeda was also a prolific film composer with over 40 films to his credit, most notably 's , Cul de Sac, the Fearless Vampire Killers and in 1968, Rosemary's Baby.

His 1965 album, Astigmatic, is widely regarded as the album that established a distinctly European voice in jazz. Unfortunately, his life was cut short at the age of 37 after a tragic accident.

I was invited by Robert Domanski, the artistic director of the Polish Film Festival, to present a concert to celebrate Komeda's contribution as a film composer and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his untimely passing.

For this concert, given it was being presented by the Polish Film Festival, I wanted to include a visual aspect. Given that music is usually composed in response to a film and often in the background, on this occasion I wanted to flip that around and use the music as the inspiration for the film. I created a kind of aural storyline encompassing a mix of Komeda's film and jazz works. This was then used by video artist, Jean Poole, as the starting point for him to develop the visual language. He filmed a load of footage around the Mary Creek area near where we both live. This is where the name of the project comes with zatoczka being the Google translation of creek.

Then on the night, Jean Poole improvised a live film in response to the music. The music you’re listening to is from that night performed by the Adam Simmons Creative Music ensemble with very special guests, Tony Gould on piano and Deborah Kayser on voice.

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So, what's my connection to Poland? I'm a half-Sri Lankan, half-Anglo Aussie. So, to be honest before 1999, I knew very little about Poland or it's culture but that year, I was playing with the Adam Simmons Quartet at the Wangaratta Festival Jazz and Blues and we did a tune of mine called Poles Apart. Just after I announce it, the front row erupts. "Woo, go the Poles." Turns out there were about 8 to 10 Poles in the audience. After the gig, they bought a bunch of CDs and got me to sign them and we got to talking and then a week later, one of them, Yarrick Voycheck, came to see another of my bands, New Blood, and said, "Oh, you'd be great in Poland." Sure enough, a year later we were doing a month- long tour across Poland for our first European tour.

Since then, I've enjoyed a number of collaborations with members of the Polish community, both here and in Poland, involving music and visual art. I've spent time learning some of the language and I've developed a strong love for Polish cuisine, especially pierogi ruski, potato and cheese filled dumplings, and paczki which are plum jam filled donuts, and I've found that Polish people are really proud of their culture and they're warm in their hospitality and humour. I've also learnt that jazz has a long history in Poland, partly as it was one of the few things from the west that was available to the Poles via radio, and Komeda is central in that story.

Komeda has been a constant talking point from my first encounter and he really is a household name like a Miles Davis or James Morrison, and he's held in high regard by the Polish people. So, when the opportunity was offered to me by the Polish Film Festival to do this concert, I knew it was one to grab with both hands.

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Komeda's music for me has a lovely mix of nostalgia and timelessness. It speaks of the fifties and sixties but there is something contemporary as well at the same time. What resonates for me is the clarity in his composition that has a simplicity at its core. That doesn't necessarily mean easy or basic. As a comparison, equals MC squared is a simple formula but it has heavy ramifications. His music often has a beautiful haunting lyricism but there are also less conventional shapes and structures which do have a logic and they contribute to his more idiosyncratic voice.

In arranging the music, I tried to identify these ideas so instead of just replicating the music, that we would really play with the music and with this in mind, Tony Gould was ideal for the project. He really is a national living treasure. He was one of my main lecturers when I attended the Victorian College of the Arts. He's a pianist of immense beauty and touch with a good dash of larrikin wit thrown in. I'm never quite sure what Tony's going to do and I'm not sure he is either.

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The Creative Music Ensemble members are well used to my rambling and contradictory instructions, but I trust them implicitly to make their personal contributions to the music. It seems Komeda really encouraged that from his musicians also, often giving very little specific verbal direction but leaving it open for the musicians to explore.

I'm not quite sure when but I do look forward to being able to present zatoczka again. The fact that Jean Poole's film was mixed live means it will never be experienced the same twice, and I'm glad we recorded the premiere which was performed all together to a full house. I believe that the energy

2 generated between artists and an audience has been captured here and I'm grateful to all of the artists and the team involved in realising this project. [Polish ] Thank you and see you later.

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You've been listening to the Victorian Seniors Festival, In the Groove, Radio Reimagined in 2020. Thank you to Adam Simmons for sharing this music with us today. This radio program was produced by Radio Reimagined 2020 team: Producer, Rob Gebert; Creative Director, Nat Grant; Technical Director, AC Hunter; and Post-Production Director, Michele Vescio. For more information about the festival and to hear more episodes like this one, please visit seniorsonline.vic.gov.au

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