Marta Warelis – Still Life with Lemons

Two years ago, Marta Warelis performed live as a pianist in trumpeter Dave Douglas’ quintet at the Cologne Jazzweek. This year, she returns to Cologne as ‘Artist in Residence’. Her sextet with rhythm section and three wind players plus electronics occupies a central position in the work of Warelis, who was born in Poland and has lived in Amsterdam since 2014. It is also central because this formation allows her to make her position as an improvisation artist clear. The young pianist once said that she creates the most powerful music when her own ego has completely disappeared. In other words, this means that improvised music can only work and convince the audience when it has become a collective effort. Only when the individual is absorbed into a group of like-minded people can the power of music be emphasised. She demonstrates this in her interplay with the musicians in her sextet, for whom spirituality in togetherness and intuition in co-operation are far more important than instrumental brilliance.