P.G.R. – Native Jazz Trio offers a jazz-centric exploration of a given region’s culture. Each jazz musician, hailing from the country to which we’ll be transported during the concert, is responsible for the authenticity of their presentation. Listening to jazz, we’re transported to the willow-shrouded banks of the Vistula River, the rugged Scandinavian islands, or the west coast of the USA – to sunny California.
Upcoming Concerts:
19/09 – Radom / Łaźnia
20/09 – Łask / Łask Cultural Center
21/09 – Żyrardów / „Pola Lnu” Restaurant
P.G.R. – Projekt Grzegorza Rogali, is a jazz project expressing the idea of combining cultures and musical genres. The concept includes a dialogue between Polish, Jewish and classical music. We can find out about it by listening to 4 CDs. First two albums shown leader’s perspective of world-Jazz. Recent two albums P.G.R. – „Polish Psalter” combined jazz with early music.
P.G.R. received a scholarship from the Berklee College of Music twice, his music has been hosted on the UK Jazz Radio and on many music stages in the USA, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, France, i.e. : Jazz in the Ruins, Głogów International Jazz Meetings. The White Stork Synagogue, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Flugery Lvova, the Stockholm Jazz Festival, St. Merry church in Paris
The next edition of the formation is the P.G.R. – Native Jazz Trio
Jazz, which is global, uses local musical cultures. There are „ethnos” that provide it with constant freshness.
Native Jazz trio proposes getting to know the culture of a given region from the jazz perspective.
Thus, listening to jazz, we are transported to the willow-covered banks of the Vistula river, the raw Scandinavian islands, or to the West Coast of America – the sunny California.The choice of these three idioms is not accidental. For a listener in the central part of Europe,
the achievements of American Jazz, which has become a kind of matrix of the genre, are certainly important.
Here we will hear strongly outlined blues, harmony perpetuated by Broadway and Hollywood standards, and swing! The Califorinian pianist – Louis Durra will be responsible for the transmission of these.
Minimalist melodies and nostalgic harmony characterize Scandinavian jazz.
Coolness that allows you to forget and travel far away from here – in this we will be helped by the double bassist from Stockholm: Anders Grop.
Upon this background, Polish Jazz balances somewhere in the middle. We have Komeda’s work, which has melody and Chopin’s melancholy – so appealing to Scandinavians who played with the author of „Sleep, safe and warm”. And the famous American jazz standards (Invitation, On green dolphin street) are by Bronisław Kaper – a Polish composer who emigrated to the USA to make a career here as a composer of music for Hollywood films.
Musicians contributing in the project:
Louis Durra – piano
As a teenager Louis was already accompanying theater groups and jazz choirs on the piano. After studying at Berklee College of Music, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a freelance musician. He has recorded six albums under his own name and is active as a collaborator with other artists. His albums “The Best of All Possible Worlds” and “Rocket Science” were both successful on radio in North America, and he has performed at the Scottish Fringe Festival to glowing reviews. Since 2013 Louis has made his home in Berlin. During the Corona lockdown, he began combining music with video, becoming a YouTube artist.
Anders Grop – double bass
Originally from Stockholm, Sweden, has been living in Berlin since 2001. He studied ensemble conducting at the Stockholm Musical Institute and has worked as a freelance musician and music teacher in the field of jazz and popular music since 1995. Since 2007, he has been a jazz ensemble instructor at the Berlin Jazz School. As a bassist, he plays in numerous Berlin ensembles and was a member of the Berlin Big Band and the Flintstones Big Band. He also works as a theater musician in variousBerlin theaters and has toured Scandinavia, Germany, France, Greece, Poland, Russia, and the USA.
Grzegorz Rogala – Trombone/Looper/Leader
A graduate of the Jazz Institut Berlin. Scholarship holder Berklee College of Music (Boston). He studied with Jiggs Whigham, and Phil Wilson.
Achievements: individual distinction at the FAMA festival (2005), winner of the festivals: Nadzieje Warszawy and the Berlin Jazz & Blues Award (with the Kattorna band). Member of the international bigband European Colors Jazz Orchestra. Winner of the Phil Wilson Award. (2009).
Discography: „Kattorna” – Kattorna (2007)„Straying To The Moon” – Kattorna (2010),
„Enthuzjazzm“ – P.G.R. (2011), „Ballady i Transe” – Agnellus (2012), „Poezjazz” – PGR & Zilberman (2014), „Kapela Polonica” – G.F. Telemann (2018 – Producer)
„Bal dlaubogich.Tribute to Tuwim” – Agnellus (2019) „Polish Psalter” – P.G.R. (2020)
„Polish Psalter vol. 2” – P.G.R. (2023), „Pieśni Wolności” (2023)Leader of such projects
He has performed at festivals such as: Krzysztof Komeda’s Festival, Summer Jazz Academy, Głogowskie Jazz Meetings, Jazz in Ruins, Od Nowa Jazz Festival, Ancona Summer Jazz (Italy), Marigliano Jazz Festival (Italy), Leipziger Jazz Tage (Germany), Sounds no Walls (Germany), Jazz Ahead (Germany), Flugery Lwowa (Ukraine), Stockholm Jazz Festival (Sweden),In year 2018 he composed music to poems of Polish Poets from XIX-XXIc. and arranged for soprano and string quartet in frame of funded by Polish Culture Ministry programm: „Independent”.
Collaboration: Maciej Obara, Grzech Piotrowski, Łukasz Pawlik, Włodek Pawlik, Paweł Pańta, Cezary Konrad, Maciej Sikała, Rosario Guliani, Roman Ott, Wiliam Cepeda,
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