The Asaf acoustic jazz quartet was founded in 2003 and less than a year later gave regular concerts in Poland and Germany, for example, at the 10th Summer Jazz Festival in Piwnica pod Baranami and the Skok Jazz Sopot Festival. The ensemble also released their first studio album, which was nominated for the Album of the Year award after receiving enthusiastic reviews. “Strongly situated in the mainstream of jazz music, its attractiveness lies not in its performance but in emotions that are pure, intense and contagious. They are easily transferred through the huge amount of space, silence and depth created by the artists,” wrote Maciej Nowotny.
After a few years' break, Asaf resumed its activity in 2019, and in March 2020 the group released a new album "Silent Prayer". The artists use here simple means of expression, which effectively lead us towards the title silent prayer. It is not religious ecstasy, but the extraction of the sacred and profane from our everyday life that makes music memorable, and whoever hears it once will want to immerse themself in it once more.
In the maze of musical styles, lead us, Lord, on the simplest path, so we avoid entering the blind ways of purely formal searches.
Let the melody and sound connect us with the audience, in which everyone will find familiar sounds, arranged anew.
And let them strengthen us in beauty. Lord, give us the ability to make the most of our skills.
Joanna Gajda has been a member of the ensemble from the very beginning. She is a graduate of the piano class of Wojciech Niedziela at the Jazz and Popular Music Department in Katowice. Ms Gajda has collaborated with Urszula Dudziak, Billy Harper, Newman Taylor Baker, Judy Bady, Debora Brown, Natalia Przybysz and Natalia Niemen, among others. She is a lecturer at the Academy of Art in Szczecin.
