Hamid Drake dazzles in many settings on Jazztopad’s eclectic programme

Many festivals aspire, or at least should do, to be more than a string of gigs spread out over several days, but Jazztopad seems to have pulled off the rare feat of being an event in which something else happens beyond what is stated in the programme. In a word it is interaction and exchange. Rather than playing a concert one evening and departing the morning after, musicians stay around. They meet their peers. They guest at each other’s gigs. They pitch up at jam sessions. The audience gets to know them.

Although not officially artist in residence at this 19th edition of the event drummer-percussionist-bandleader Hamid Drake is the embodiment of Jazztopad, a wandering spirit whose presence dots most of the weeklong event. He is heard with French flautist-vocalist Naissam Jalal (pictured below), Japanese koto virtuoso Michiyo Yagi, bassist-guimbri player Josh Abrahams’ group Natural Information Society and saxophonist David Murray’s New World Trio In each case his performance on either the frame drum, the broad circular Middle eastern instrument that puts a compelling buzz and hiss on any rhythmic lines drawn from it, or the kit justifies his billing as a great contemporary drummer.

Drake has an ability to blend western and non-western vocabularies that upholds the universalist legacy of pioneers such as Yusef Lateef and and Don Cherry all the while retaining the relentlessly driving energy associated with his native Chicago. In a pre-concert talk Drake spoke of the importance of ‘intimacy and mentorship’ in his personal development and when he leads his own ensemble to honour Alice Coltrane for the festival finale he addresses the audience at length so as to underline those very principles. Steeped in the spirit of ‘Turiya’ the music is deeply meditative and largely modal, offering extended solo spots to the likes of the gifted Italian vibraphonist Pasquale Mirra and British trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey. When Abrahams launches into the momentous, mountainous bassline of  ‘Journey In Satchidananda’, a quiet force if ever there was one, even diehard cynics would admit to feeling some sense of communion in the main hall of Narodowe Forum Muzyki.

In the smaller space of the same building other notable concerts take place, the most remarkable of which is the Angolan percussion-vocal group Nguami Maka. Using traditional instruments the five-piece makes a huge impact on the audience for much more than the vitality of the polyrhythms they create. It is the array of beguiling textures produced by the dikanza and mukindu - essentially sticks and scrapers played with such ingenuity they approximate turntable scratches or wah wah guitars - that has a visible effect on those present, while the twang and hiss of the berimbau also reinforces the fact that such ‘crude devices’ are nonetheless borne of the very same imagination and inventive thinking that power what we see as modern technology.

This is a deeply fascinating moment that shows the far reaching African roots of Brazilian and south American music and also the improvisatory nous behind it, which could not be more relevant to Jazztopad, as its artistic director Piotr Turkiewicz is all too aware. But the whole point is that these different worlds are compatible. In the closing days of the festival concerts are held in several apartments in Wroclaw in which front rooms are turned into informal meeting places, and the encounter of the Angolans with French double bassist-composer Joelle Léandre, for example, is a moment to treasure for the common ground they are able to find even though they have very different backgrounds. Léandre also demonstrates her enviable versatility by also appearing in a duo with accordionist Pascal Contet which is marked by both razor sharp verve and touches of salty humour, and then performing a dazzling original suite with the Polish Cello quartet (pictured below), in which her ability to blend passages of finely fragmented sound with starkly rousing melodies meets with the approval of a responsive audience.

And if the strings are an all-important representation of local talent then the likes of trumpeter Piotr Damasiewicz, baritone saxophonist Matylda Gerber, clarinettist-tenor saxophonist Mateusz Rybicki, bassist Zbigniew Kozera and drummer Samuel Hall all appear over several nights of jam sessions in the spacious basement of Mleczarnia café in which they show impressive versatility as they form ensembles with various guests, including Swiss artists, saxophonist Maria Grand and trio Uassyn and American bassist Rashaan Carter among others. Running very late into the night, these encounters offer a vibrant summary of what Jazztopad is, namely an international gathering which has a spirit of openness that goes beyond formal programming, so that players from Africa, America, Europe and the far east come together to create a musical lingua franca outside the reach of power brokers in a sadly divided world. It brings a great shaft of light to the dark of winter.