hoshii – HER NAME WAS YUMI [second date]

Hoshii (which means “to desire” in Japanese) is a project by saxophonist and producer Kuba Więcek, who returns to the jazz scene with fresh ideas gathered over the past few years while collaborating with numerous artists from the hip-hop and alternative scenes. The music performed by the band hoshii is essentially a collection of beats created by Kuba, which were later arranged for a jazz quartet and produced in a way that aims to redefine the sound of contemporary jazz.

The band also features pianist Grzegorz Tarwid, with whom Kuba studied in Copenhagen; Max Mucha, a bassist known for his work with Christian Scott among others; and drummer Miłosz Berdzik, a graduate of Berklee College of Music.

The context for the music is a story about a being named hoshii, who comes from a planet called versus, located several galaxies away from Earth. Bored with her perfect and predictable life, hoshii sets off on a journey to experience something new—and thus arrives on Earth. At first, she faces rejection from humans, but over time, things begin to change, and the being starts to be accepted by her new surroundings.

May marks the release of the project’s second album, HER NAME WAS YUMI, which tells the story of hoshii’s further adventures alongside an equally mysterious character named yumi. At Jassmine, the material will be performed in full for the second time during an additional premiere concert.