Double bassist with many Faces - Thomas Kolarczyk
artist ritual participated at the Carnival of Cultures 2016 in Berlin and interviewed exciting artists. One of them is Thomas Kolarczyk who started his musical career as a classical guitarist, and then found his instrument, the double bass.
artist ritual: When did you start making music and how did you get to it?
Thomas: I make music since I was seven years old. I started with classical guitar. The idea came since my godfather has always played a little guitar at family gatherings and then I eventually said that I would also like to try it. Those were the beginnings.
artist ritual: What means Jazz for you?
Thomas: Jazz is somehow a funny word, what brings many options. Many people often have such an image of jazz in mind, but it is actually much more than that. Just improvised music can sound very different. I am trying to avoid the term a bit, because for many people it just sounds so old-fashioned.
artist ritual: You are an active part in the Berlin jazz scene. Please describe it, maybe benchmarking jazz scenes in other cities.
Thomas: So the good and the bad at the Berlin jazz scene is that it is very unclear. That is, there are many individual Berlin jazz scenes and you will be surprised repeatedly. It is not the case, so that you necessarily know each other. However, you go somewhere and you suddenly hear music that you have never heard before. Thus, you would expect just always the unexpected. The crowd does not rest and we are always open that one can meet new people. Therefore, there is a lot of exchange. It is also very international. You can network with contacts in other countries. I appreciate that very much in Berlin. Other German jazz scenes are very German. Moreover, one can exchange across in Europe and the world more likely via the Berlin jazz scene.
artist ritual: You play contrabass in several ensembles. Can you name them and describe what kind of musical genres they mainly play?
Thomas: I accompany several jazz projects playing its own compositions. I play contrabass in a Kurdish band playing rather folk music. In addition, I play with a drummer in a duo, where we tend to play experimental tracks. Then I have my own quintet, where we merge all influences. I also still play in a rock band. This is experimental rock. So just about everything. In the orchestras, I play classical contrabass. I try to make many different things.
artist ritual: What are your plans for the future?
Thomas: With the band I just played at the Carnival of Cultures today, there is a tour in June. This is the first tour. Then there is an album recording with the same band. My debut in the jazz world as a kind of composer and musician. Other than that, many things are going on. Rehearsals with other bands. It's very confusing. I always have to look in the calendar (laughs).
Thomas always tries to look at both sides - the good and the evil. Earlier, he wanted to focus on diverse professions: botanist, psychologist. Ultimately, he fortunately became a bassist. As a child, he was a constant collector and was pretty much taking care of animals. Nowadays, his favourite activity is clearly the music. When asked what his contribution was to make the world a little bit better, he replied: "My Music. I try to provide people a positive experience with internationalism in the concerts. "
In this sense, we wish Thomas all the best and success with his various musical projects.
