Never in the past did Polish music fans looked ahead to a Grammy Awards presentation gala, to be held in Los Angeles on Sunday, with the sort excitement as they are this year.
The CD ‘Night in Calisia’, with Calisia in the title referring to the town of Kalisz, one of Poland’s oldest, is one of the nominees in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category.
The work is a jazz suite by the Polish jazz pianist andcomposer Wlodek Pawlik, recorded by his piano trio (with Paweł Pańta - bass and Cezary Konrad – drums), the American trumpeter Randy Brecker and the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Adam Klocek.
‘Night in Calisia’ was commissioned by the town of Kalisz for its 1850th anniversary. The suite is based on several melodic themes, which reappear throughout the six sections, with some passages performed by the orchestra and others featuring the piano trio and the trumpeter, together providing a continuous flow of integrated music.
Wlodek Pawlik’s previous collaboration with Randy Brecker resulted in the album ‘Tykocin Jazz Suite’ , named after the small town in eastern Poland which had a predominantly Jewish population before World War Two
While fans of Polish jazz are keeping their fingers crossed for Pawlik, Barbara Trzetrzelewska’s fans continue to send congratulatory messages to their idol.
Basia
Earlier this week Trzetrzelewska, known as Basia, was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland for her services in the promotion of Polish culture.
She received the medal from the hands of the Polish Ambassador in the UK Wiktor Sobków at a ceremony at the Polish Embassy in London and was evidently moved with the Ambassador’s remarks, in which he thanked her for everything that she has done for Polish culture and asked for ‘more hits and more evidence of her talent.
In her thank-you address, she said that she started her career in the 1980s, when ‘people kept talking about communism, that strange and dark period; hence my efforts to build a positive image of Poland’.
She added that in every interview and at every concert she stresses that Poland is her native country.
Born in 1954, Basia was a member of the popular all-girl vocal group Alibabki and sang with the rock band Perfect in the 1970s. She left Poland in 1979 and, after a brief stay in the United States, developed a successful career in Britain and the United States with jazz-pop crossover hits and an incredible vocal range of almost three octaves.
In 1983, Basia performed with Mark Reilly and Danny White as the jazz-pop group Bronze, later changed into Matt Bianco. Their debut CD ‘Whose Side Are You On’ sold over 1.5 million copies. In 1985 Basia started a solo career. Her albums ‘Time and Tide’, ‘London Warsaw New York’, ‘The Sweetest Illusion’ and ‘Matt’s Mood’ have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her hits topped Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums
In 1998 Basia withdrew from the music scene for several years, saying that because of the deaths of people close to her, including her own mother, she did not feel like singing. In 2004 she joined a re-formed Matt Bianco and five years later released her fourth studio album ‘It’s that Girl Again’, which was a huge success. In 2011 she made a guest appearance on the Polish edition of X Factor. Her recent recordings include duets with the popular Polish soul singer Mieczysław Szcześniak. (mk)