The band ZIEMIA – last year’s winner of the JAZZ JUNIORS festival – will be touring in the Balkans. September 28 to October 5 will see this four-piece ensemble play 5 shows in Albania, Romania and Serbia. The tour is organized as part of the JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project.
ZIEMIA will kick-off their tour on September 28 in Serbia, where they visit the Jazzire Festival in Subotnica – an experimental and improvised music festival. The following day will see them give a concert in Albania, at the Shkodra ARKA Center, while on September 30 they will play in the country’s capital – Tirana at the International Festival JazzinAlbania. After that, the band will return to Serbia to play in Belgrade on October 3 and in Novi Sad a day later at CK13. The tour’s last show is scheduled for October 5 at the Timisoara Jazz in Romania. The band will perform in its original lineup: Oskar Tomala (guitar), Mateusz Żydek (trumpet), Jakub Wosik (double bass) and Alan Kapołka (drums).
ZIEMIA is a group formed in 2019 by the guitarist Oskar Tomala. Their concert and recording plans have been held back by COVID-19, but this couldn’t stop the band from exchanging improvised material online, which resulted in the creation of their “Catastrophe” E.P., issued via Bandcamp service. July 2022 saw the premiere of their debut L.P. “Ziemia Dniem”, created with the help of Albertem Karch. It consisted of 7 original compositions and their debut live show was held at the Jazz Jantar festival. Soon thereafter the band went on its first official concert tour during which the musicians visited Austria, Croatia, Czechia and Hungary. The experience they gathered made them reach the finals of the Jazz Juniors festival in 2022, where they eventually won the Grand Prix. Currently the group is working on their next album with a guest appearance of Ireneusz Wojtczak on saxophone.
ZIEMIA’s live shows in Albania, Romania and Serbia are organized by JAZZ PO POLSKU Foundation within the JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project, in collaboration with the Polish Embassies in Belgrade and Tirana, with support from Culture.pl and Jazz Juniors Fetival. The project’s partners include: ARP Foundation and PZU Foundation. The project’s strategic partner is Podlaske Voivodeship. Honorary patronage: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Patrons: National Chamber of Commerce, Commercial Diplomacy Institute Foundation, Jazz Forum and Warsaw Insider.
The JAZZ PO POLSKU “Around the World” project took a form of an international concert tour and is inspired by the feats of a Polish traveler, Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, who was the first Pole to have circumnavigated the World (in the years 1834-1843). Within the project the following 3 years will see Polish musicians perform in over 100 shows on 4 continents. The project will be participated by the leading groups of the Polish jazz and improvised scene. The initiative has already had its start in May 2023 with Polish artists performing live in China, Japan, Israel, Canada, Romania and Vietnam.
The JAZZ PO POLSKU Foundation is a non-governmental organization presenting a wide variety of skills of Poland’s finest young artists. It helps in establishing cultural collaboration and integrates artistic environments from around the World. It strives for refreshment and consolidation of the image of Polish jazz in the consciousness of foreign listeners. The organized shows have recently been expanded by the addition of Poland-based concerts by artists from both, Poland and other countries.
LIVE SCHEDULE
Oskar Tomala – guitar; Mateusz Żydek – trumpet; Jakub Wosik – double bass; Alan Kapołka – drums
28.09, Serbia, Subotica, Jazzire Festival
29.09, Albania, Shkodra, Tirana, International Festival JazzinAlbaniaARKA Centre
30.09, Albania, Tirana, International Festival JazzinAlbania, VH Eurostar Hotel
03.10, Sebia, Belgrade, Belgrade, SpratBar
04.10, Serbia, Novi Sad, CK13
05.10, Romania, Timisoara, Timisoara Jazz Festival