DESCRIPTION:
This is one of the videos that I produced for Spinearth.tv: a report about a concert of the Polish big band Trifonidis Orchestra, in Warsaw on 27th September 2008.
Unfortunately the website Spinearth.tv is currently (September 2010) not online and therefore my videos are not available anymore. This is why I publish them again here, at YouTube.

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Meeting the Trifonidis Orchestra

Maciej Bielawski is his own orchestra. The Trifonidis Orchestra, that I had the chance to listen on 27th September 2008 at Koneser in Warsaw, is his creature, in which Bielawski expresses himself directing, composing, arranging, playing flute and other instruments, and also taking care of the mixing and the mastering in the recording studio. In short, the orchestra is an extension of his founder and mentor, under the shape of a 16 musicians ensemble.
The Trifonidis Orchestra has a joyful, energetic sound, in which all the elements have the same importance, creating a perfectly balanced collective speech in which also the voice is not leading, but is functional to the global character of the orchestra. It's exactly the singer, Katarzyna Federowicz, who describes the music that they play: «it's a kind of jazz, but it's not exactly jazz, it's a kind of big band, but not a big band, exactly. I would say that it's fusion music, a mix of funky, jazzy ethno, and film music: it describes "things"». The "things" that Federowicz talks about are related, for example, to some topics of global importance, like in the tunes "Tybet" and "Darfur": «I was in Africa, where I used to work for children, and I think that the situation in Darfur is so important that we can't just go and not see it, that's why we want music to be also connected with the situations on the world».
The impact of the orchestra on stage is powerful, and it reflects Bielawski's desire to extend his previous octet, Tricphonix, into something bigger. Katarzyna Federowicz continues explaning that «the most important thing for us is to stay on the stage with something big: the music is so powerful when you play in such a big organic. There are not a lot of orchestras here in Poland, I would say, especially jazz orchestras, but that was always Maciej's dream to make this kind of big thing. We have at the moment 16 people, but we are thinking about more people in our band».
When, finally, Maciej Bielawski reveals that he is autodidact and hasn't any background of musical studies, it appears clear that the orchestra is completely daughter of his strong wish and vivid imagination.

Filippo Maria Caggiani