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Marcin Masecki

Marcin Masecki has become one of the most creative and original musicians of the new generation, recording and performing as a member of a jazz ensemble, but also as a performer of avant-garde and pop music. He has founded and co-founded a number of successful musical projects and groups over the first decade of the 21st Century.

He took his first piano lessons as a child, and got interested in jazz around the same period. In 1997, while he was attending musical secondary school he joined the band Alchemik, lead by saxophonist Grzegorz Piotrowski. In 1998, the band won the main price at the Jazz Hoeilaart festival in Brussels, where Masecki was also acclaimed as best solo performer. After several intense and exhausting tours and the release of four albums, Masecki left the band. Parallel to that project, the musician also collaborated with the group Oxen, and in 1998 he recorded an album with Andrzej Jagodziński, entitled Tribute to Marek&Wacek. The duo associated with the quartet Prima Vista to release new interpretations of film scores from the 1930s: Gdzie są filmy z tamtych lat / Where are the Films of those Years (2000). After graduating from secondary school in 2000, Masecki received a scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he spent two years dividing his time between studying, performing live and networking. He met the musicians with whom he formed the trio TAQ, as well as his future wife, vocalist Candelaria Saenz Valiente.

Masecki wentback to Poland in 2002 and quickly melted with the alternative and improvisational musical scene in Warsaw, mostly concentrated around the independent record label Lado ABC. In addition to his solo performances, he became involved in the creation of numerous musical projects which combined jazz improvisation with an avant-garde concept: Telewizor, Papierosy, TAQ, Wczasowicz Paweł or the trio Masecki/Rogiński/Moretti. He performed as a guest musician on Pink Freud's album Alchemia, and collaborated with the bands Muzykoterapia and Afro Kolektyw. As a studio musician he recorded alongside Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak, Reni Jusis and the Waglewski family, including work on the album Męska muzyka by Waglewski/Fisz/Emade.

In 2005, Marcin Masecki received the first prize and gold medal at the International Jazz Piano Competition in Moscow.

For three years he belonged to the quartet of one of the most prominent Polish double bassists Zbigniew Wegehaupt, with whom he recorded the critically acclaimed albums Wege (2006) and Tota (2008).In 2009, Marcin Masecki released his sophomore solo album BOB, which received unanimous positive reviews in the Polish press, critics describing the record as one of the most original yet stylistically indefinable albums of the year. Almost simultaneously, the debut album of the band Paristetris - the band Masecki created with his wife Candelaria Saenz Valiente and multi-instrumentalist Macio Moretti - hit the shelves. The record was promoted via numerous impromptu performances combining music on the edge of pop, cabaret, jazz and improvised avant-garde, presenting an unusual new genre emerging from the Polish independent scene.

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137
Album Review

Marcin Masecki: Meat

Read "Meat" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes


Polish-born Marcin Masecki might have come to the US to further his jazz studies, but he found his muse among his continent's more experimentalist improvisers (though many of his supporters identify Pennsylvania-born Keith Jarrett as one of his influences). Much of what he plays is improvised on the spot, whether performing solo or with Trio Taq (Garth Stevenson, bass; Ziv Ravitz, drums), which came into existence during his time at Berklee College. His talent is showcased on ...

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278

Performance / Tour

Trio Taq: Marcin Masecki, Garth Stevenson, Ziv Ravitz U.S. Tour

Trio Taq: Marcin Masecki, Garth Stevenson, Ziv Ravitz U.S. Tour

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Marcin Masecki, the celebrated young jazz pianist who took the contemporary jazz world by storm when he won the 2005 Moscow International Jazz Piano Competition (its jury chaired by legendary Martial Solal), is being brought back by The Polish Cultural Institute on a U.S. tour with his long-time partners in Trio TAQ - Canadian bassist Garth Stevenson and Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz - with concerts at the Lily Pad in Boston on Monday, December 17 at 7:30 PM; New York's ...

131

Performance / Tour

Poland's Emerging Jazz Piano Star Marcin Masecki Playing Solo Joe's Pub on Saturday, November 11, at 7:30 PM

Poland's Emerging Jazz Piano Star Marcin Masecki Playing Solo Joe's Pub on Saturday, November 11, at 7:30 PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

POLAND'S ASTONISHING YOUNG JAZZ PIANIST MARCIN MASECKI PLAYING SOLO AT JOE'S PUB NOVEMBER 11

Poland's emerging jazz piano star Marcin Masecki is making his New York City debut with a solo concert at Joe's Pub on Saturday, November 11, at 7:30 PM. The concert is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York as part of the 8th International Chopin & Friends Festival organized by New York Dance & Arts Innovations, Inc.

The Warsaw-born Masecki ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Polonezy

Lado ABC
2013

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John

Lado ABC
2010

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Meat

Unknown label
2008

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