There were four of them: Tymon, Mikolaj, Leszek, and Jacek. They formed a legendary jazz (or ’’ yass ,” as they used to call their type of music) band in the late 80s and early 90s called Milosc (Love) in their hometown of Gdansk, in the Wrzeszcz borough. What brought them together was the pure joy of playing, improvising, and feeling, and the love of music. Paradoxically, this is also what split them apart: different visions for their repertoire and their methods of playing. Pernicious ambition and skill came between four talented musicians, who were too young and too inexperienced to survive the temporary obstacles and disturbing gusts of youth.
"Pernicious ambition and skill came between four talented musicians, who were too young and too inexperienced to survive the temporary obstacles and disturbing gusts of youth."
Milosc: A Documentary , directed by newcomer Filip Dierzawski, is an insightful and thorough – if rather brief – look into the history of the band and their attempt to get back together for one last gig, during the Off Festival in 2009. The artistic director of the festival, Artur Rojek (the former leader of the very popular Polish band Myslovitz, best known for their bestselling album Love In the Time of Pop Culture ) initiated a meeting years after Milosc split up, but he was not sure the experiment would work. In a series of retrospectives intertwined with footage from the festival rehearsals, Dzierzawski tells the story of the friendship and special bond between two of the band members: Tymon Tymanski and Mikolaj Trzaska.
Tymon, a multi-instrumentalist contrabassist and Zen Buddhist, was always the natural leader, and in the years after Milosc split up, he formed or played in numerous bands, such as Kury (Hens) or Tymon i Trupy (Tymon and The Corpses). Mikolaj, on the other hand, is a self-taught saxophonist, composer, and clarinet player, later part of Loskot (Clatter) and Gdanskie Sloniki (Elephants from Gdansk), among other bands. Each of them had a different idea of how a jazz band should look like. Perhaps they could have continued their creative flights, had it not been for the participation of the third member of the band, the musical genius Leszek Mozdzer, who is one of the most famous and talented Polish classical musicians, as well as the suicide of the fourth member of Milosc, drummer Jacek Olter. This tragic event was an ultimate trial for the band, and sadly – if understandably –, they did not survive it.
"It is a FILM, written in capital letters, not just a medley of musical pieces, archives, and fragments of meaningless chatter."
Milosc: A Documentary is a study of every musician’s inherent propensity for dictating terms in a band. It is also about dealing with the past and seeing if the spirit of the “good old days” can be restored. Most of all, however, it is a FILM, written in capital letters, not just a medley of musical pieces, archives, and fragments of meaningless chatter. It began as an attempt to bring people together and to raise youthful enthusiasm for creation. Although seemingly a lost cause, the very fact that it was even attempted was a victory for the filmmakers. Against the exotic backdrop of the late Polska Republika Ludowa (or Polish People’s Republic, as the official name of Poland was written during Communist times, between 1952 and 1989), when even food was scarce, not to mention musical instruments and time in a recording studio, Dzierzawski and his musical heroes find the golden mean preventing them from portraying Milosc in a brazen or oversimplified manner. The director does not judge, but tracks the roots of the musicians’ own choices and lets them discuss their legitimacy. Milosc: A Documentary is a true gem that can easily be compared to the recent success of Searching for Sugar Man (about two South Africans searching for the American musician Sixto Rodriguez). But unlike this other music documentary, Dzierzawski’s film is not an optimistic bouquet but an epitaph for a great band that has not weathered the tides of time but nevertheless has not been forgotten.
