Piotr Schmidt International Sextet - Hearsay (2023)

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Piotr Schmidt International Sextet - Hearsay (2023)

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"Hearsay" - this is the title of jazz trumpeter Piotr Schmidt's sixteenth album. After Komeda Unknown 1967, which once again showed Schmidt to be a brilliant arranger, it was time to invite the listeners once again into the world of his original music. This time it is an emotional journey full of mystery and understatement.

The title Hearsay refers to heard information without confirmation, which often leads to misunderstandings and a falsified perception of reality. The trumpeter's new album becomes a space for him to confront these rumours through his music, in order to ultimately try to see the truth, free from subjectivity.

Each composition on the album alludes to a different hearsay - a rumour - so it is not surprising that the trumpeter gives each one to the listener in a different way. He uses a variety of jazz styles to do so - from spacious melancholy to energetic, condensed improvisations.

And so we have the rawness of Harish Raghavan's double bass intro to the album's opening track, Unwanted Truth, which is a musical translation of the mechanism of displacement. Slow motion - the only non-author composition on the album, for which Schmidt's friend from his music school days in Gliwice, Bartosz Pieszka, is responsible - is a piece that makes us realise how often we live in slow motion, but also in slumber and marasm.

In our own world. For better or for worse, because ignorance can sometimes be bliss.

This Is Not Real is the next after Unwanted Truth to disbelieve reality. A failure to accept the obvious and even a denial - often accompanying us after the death of someone very close to us. Good Old Roy breaks out of the album's main narrative of meaning. For it refers to Schmidt's great inspiration, which was Roy Hargrove. An inspiration that in a way contributed to the creation of the band Schmidt Electric in 2011. With this composition, the leader charts his increasingly less two-track path, blurring the line between electric-groove jazz and that of acoustic-space jazz. A new quality is emerging, of which this album is a kind of manifestation.

Full of contrasting feelings - hope and doubt, doggedness and resignation - Never Give Up Sometimes Let Go seems to be one of the more important messages of this album.

The leitmotif and title of the album are linked to the idea that there is no objective truth, but only subjective perceptions of reality. This concept is one of the fundamental philosophical and epistemological positions. It suggests that our perception and interpretation of the world is dependent on our individual experiences, beliefs, values, emotions and social context.

Even if we all look at the same object or event, each person may perceive different aspects, focus on different details and draw individual conclusions. Our perception is shaped by our concepts, beliefs and emotions, which influence the way we perceive and interpret the world.

In addition, cultural and social perspectives play an important role in our perception of the world. Our values, social norms, traditions and cultural context influence how we interpret and understand the meaning of life. What may be true in one culture or community may be completely different from what is considered true in another.

However, it is worth noting that the non-recognition of objective truth does not mean that there are no universal truths or some objective criteria of evaluation. There are features of reality that can be verified and confirmed by scientific research methods, mathematics or logic. Although even in these fields, our subjective perceptions and interpretations can influence the way we perceive and understand these objective facts.

Hearsay is an album that invites listeners to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of jazz stories, full of unusual stories but also accompanying uncertainty. Piotr Schmidt believes that his music will, above all, stimulate the imagination of his listeners and become a new prism in the perception of reality.

Piotr Schmidt International Sextet:
Piotr Schmidt, trumpet, compositions (1, 2, 4, 5, 6)
Kęstutis Vaiginis, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
David Doruzhka, electric guitar
Paweł Tomaszewski, piano
Michał Barański, double bass (3, 4, 6)
Sebastian Kuchczyński, drums (3, 4, 6)
Harish Raghavan, double bass (1, 2, 5)
Jonathan Barber, drums (1, 2, 5)