Per Oddvar Johansen, drums
Tore Brunborg, saxophone
Tracklist:
01. Prelude
02. Elegy
03. Faith
04. Love
05. One
06. Brothers
07. Hallelujah
08. Shadows
09. Coda
ACT 2017
Adam Bałdych’s new album is called “Brothers,” and is dedicated to the memory of his brother who passed away. The violinist is able truly to portray the entire gamut of emotions through music. In the pianissimo moments it is replete with feeling and also clarity, and on the other hand Bałdych can take it to a point where it is so strong and loud it feels almost ready to burst. “I would like my music,” says Bałdych,“to ingrain itself into the present time, and also to reflect it. It should take on board the cares and the yearnings of now.
The title of Adam Bałdych’s previous album from 2015 was “Bridges”. And indeed, the Polish violinist is one of the leading builders of bridges between genres in current European jazz. Only 31 years old, he already has a whole sheaf of distinguished awards to his name, notably an ECHO Jazz Prize. His music combines Polish folk, classical music and many different kinds of jazz. He plays with an astonishing technical range, in which classical finesse is combined with swirling improvisation - and the defiant energy and power of rock music. Since 2015, Bałdych has been building these kinds of bridges in the company of the Norwegian Helge Lien Trio. “With Helge, Frode and Per Oddvar we have clocked up thousands of kilometres together; these musicians are way more than just a backing band,” says the violinist.
Adam Bałdych’s new album is called “Brothers,” and is dedicated to the memory of his brother who passed away. So, for Bałdych and his band colleagues, it is about far more than either mere virtuosity or entertainment. “I would like my music,” says Bałdych,“to ingrain itself into the present time, and also to reflect it. It should take on board the cares and the yearnings of now. What I really wish for my music is that it should convey a message about love and beauty; more than ever we ought to feel that we are brothers and sisters, in order to understand each other better.” This lofty goal is reflected in track titles such as “Faith”,“Love”,“One” and “Shadows”. And through all that shared experience of playing with Helge Lien on piano, Frode Berg on bass and Per Oddvar Johansen on drums, Bałdych has the ideal means to express many different aspects of brotherliness through music. The group is also joined on some tracks by Norwegian saxophonist Tore Brunborg, known for his work with artists such as Tord Gustavsen and Manu Katchè.
That deep sense of brotherliness between musicians is the starting-point for this band: “Only with complete trust and understanding can we achieve the objective of musical unity,” says Bałdych. “What we want is to embark on musical journeys without compromises, and to have the courage to discover the unknown.” This unity in their way of making music shines through in all nine tracks on this CD, of which eight are original compositions by Bałdych. The album also hangs together convincingly as a whole – to some extent it has become a concept album. Bałdych draws an extended arc which runs from the heavy and rocky anthem “Elegy”, through the ballad “Faith” which carefully draws the listener into its confidence and modulates from major to minor. It then takes in a lyrical pledge of unity (”One”) and the title track “Brothers” which agitatedly circles around its theme, and arrives at a point where “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen seems to emerge from nothingness, and quietly to disappear back into it.
“Compared to our last album “Bridges”, says Bałdych,“the music in "Brothers" is ‘dirtier’ and more uninhibited. It is as if we can exist on that knife-edge between what Lacan called “the cry” and silence. And that is how the world is now: joy and tragedy can co-exist right next to each other.”
The violinist is able truly to portray the entire gamut of emotions through music. In the pianissimo moments it is replete with feeling and also clarity, and on the other hand Bałdych can take it to a point where it is so strong and loud it feels almost ready to burst. The interaction of Polish and Scandinavian sounds, of the American and European traditions of improvising, and the ways in which styles and genres unite and complement each other…everything happens a way which carries that spirit of brotherliness. And so listeners are also inevitably drawn in - as spiritual brothers or sisters.
2019,用LOVE開始吧。
Adam Baldych送給逝去的哥哥的這張專輯
喚起我刻意埋藏起來的思念。。。
Only you know what you value most,
who you want to share your life with,
what kind of environment you want to be in,
and ultimately how to make the best choices to bring those things about.
(只有你知道你最看重什麼,
你願意與誰共度人生,
你想要什麼樣的環境,
只有你能最終做出最好的決定,
盡最大可能實現這一切。)
Get rid of irrelevant details so that essential things
and the relationships between them stand out.
"Any damn fool can make it complex.
It takes a genius to make it simple."
(撇掉無關細節, 讓重要因素及其相互關係呈現出來。
“每個傻子都能把事情複雜化,只有天才才能把事情簡單化。”)
Knowing how one is wired is necessary first step on any life journey.
It doesn't matter what you do with your life,
as long as you are doing what is consistent with your nature and your aspirations.
(在任何生命歷程中,了解人的特性都是必要的第一步。
你做什麼並不重要,只要你做的符合自己的個性和人生理想。)
I can assure you that,
beyond a basic level,
there is no correlation between happiness levels and conventional markers of success.
A carpenter who derives his deepest satisfaction from working with wood
can easily have a life as good or better than the president of the United States.
(我可以明確地説,
在基本生活線之上,
幸福水平和常規的成功標準之間沒有任何聯繫。
一個能從木工中得到內心滿足的木匠,
能輕鬆擁有和美國總統一樣美好甚至比美國總統更好的生活。)
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses,
and everyone has an important role to play in life.
Nature made everything and everyone for a purpose.
The courage that's needed the most isn't the kind that drives you to prevail over others,
but the kind that allows you to be true to your truest self,
no matter what other people want you to be.
(人人都有長處和短處,
人人都能在生活中扮演重要角色。
大自然塑造萬事萬物皆有目的。
你最需要的勇氣不是驅使你戰勝別人的勇氣,
而是不管其他人對你有何期望,
你始終堅持做最真實的自我的勇氣。)
Whatever circumstances life brings you,
you will be more likely to succeed and find happiness
if you take responsibility for making your decisions well
instead of complaining about things being beyond your control.
Psychologists call this having an "internal locus of control,"
people who have it outperform those who don't.
(不管在生活中遇到什麼情況,
如果你能負起責任,進行良好的決策,
而不是抱怨你無法控制的東西,
你將更有可能成功並找到幸福。
心理學家稱此為擁有“內控點”。
擁有“內控點”的人比其他人做得更好。)
So don't worry about whether you like your situation or not.
Life doesn't give a damn about what you like.
It's up to you to connect what you want with what you need to do to get it
and then find the courage to carry it through.
(不要為喜不喜歡自己的處境擔憂。
生活根本不關心你喜歡什麼。
你必須根據自己的願望找到實現願望的途徑,
然後鼓起勇氣堅持下去。)
Watching people struggle and having others watch you struggle
can elicit all kinds of ego-driven emotions
such as sympathy, pity, embarrassment, anger, or defensiveness.
You need to get over all that and stop seeing struggling as something negative.
(看別人如何苦拼,讓別人看你如何苦拼,會引發各種自我情緒。
如同情、憐憫、難堪、憤怒、戒備等。
你需要克服這一切,不再把苦拼視為負面的東西。)
Most of life's greatest opportunities come out of moments of struggle;
it's up to you to make the most of these tests of creativity and character.
(人一生最好的機會大多數來自苦拼的經歷。
苦拼是對人的創造性和個性的考驗,
你應該從這些考驗中挖掘出最大的價值。)
Don't avoid confronting problems because they are rooted in harsh realities that are unpleasant to look at.
(不要逃避問題,因為問題根植於看起來並不美好的殘酷現實。)
Thinking about problems that are difficult to solve may make you anxious,
but not thinking about them (and hence not dealing with them)
should make you more anxious still.
When a problem stems from your own lack of talent or skill,
most people feel shame.
Get over it.
Acknowledging your weaknesses is not the same as surrendering to them.
It's the first step toward overcoming them.
The pains you are feeling are "growing pains"
that will test your character and reward you as you push through them.
(思考難以解決的問題也許會讓你焦慮,
但不思考(因此不嘗試解決)肯定會讓你更焦慮。
當問題但原因是自身缺乏某種天賦或技能時。
大多數人會感到羞愧。
克服這種羞愧。
承認你的弱點並不是向弱點投降,而是克服弱點的第一步。
你感到的痛苦是“成長的痛苦”,
它將考驗你的個性,
當你忍痛前行時給你回報。)