First Ladies: Polish Women & Jazz
Although women were present in the Polish jazz scene for decades almost exclusively as vocalists, this limited scope of opportunities didn't stop them from garnering recognition in the foreign press. It is hard to name better ambassadors of the scene than Urszula Dudziak, Basia or Grażyna Auguścik.
From its early days, Polish jazz was dominated by men. With a few notable exceptions, women appeared on the scene solely as singers. This is demonstrated vividly in the final chapter of Krystian Brodacki's book, History of Jazz in Poland. The author presents a list of musicians important to the Polish scene, dividing them into categories according to the instruments they played. Amongst them, Brodacki includes the names of 34 women, 29 of whom are vocalists.
Music is not about quantity, which can never reflect the scale of Eve Wanat's talent or the career that Urszula Dudziak has achieved. Therefore, when writing about culture, statistics must be used with great caution. Nevertheless, it is encouraging that from today's perspective, Brodacki's list has become outdated. More and more talented female artists are appearing on the Polish jazz scene, and there are a growing number of instrumentalists amongst them. Hopefully, their achievements will catch up with those of Polish jazz vocalists.
From Mirska to Warska
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Wanda Warska. photo: Aleksander Jalosinski / FORUM
Describing the beginning of jazz in Poland, Brodacki states that he hadn't found any mention of female jazz musicians during the interwar period. Even if women did not perform on stage, it does not mean that they did not engage with jazz in other ways. The most impressive example of such a connection with the genre may be found in the poems of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska. The outstanding poet wrote such literary works as Jazzband and Krzyk Jazzbandu (Jazz Band Shout), which testify to her interest in – or even affirmation of – this new musical fashion.
Pre-war female publicists also expressed strong opinions about jazz. In the pages of Lwowskie Wiadomości Muzyczne i Literackie the musicologist Zofia Pohorylesowa wrote an article entitled Luźne Uwagi o Jazzbandzie (Casual Observations about Jazz Bands), in which she elaborated, amongst other things, on the significant role of syncopation in this music. Although informative, the piece was a testimony to the author's distaste for jazz. The same newspaper published a similar article about this genre by Dr Alicja Simonówna. Compared to the previous two authors, another pre-war publicist, Irena Mirska, ought to be called a jazz enthusiast. In 1935, in the pages of Krakow's Ilustrowany Kuryer Codzienny, the author published an article entitled Dwudziestolecie Jazzu. This eloquent text, explaining the keywords of the jazz scene, testified to Mirska's outstanding knowledge. Brodacki wrote about the article in his own work:
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Amazingly insightful, so much that it attracted the attention of abroad: it was translated into Italian and published on 30 May 1935 in the daily ‘Il Corriere del Tirreno’, under the changed title ‘How Jazz was Born’. Adriano Mazzoletti, jazz drummer, radio personality and expert on the history of Italian jazz, wrote that this article was the first attempt to define swing in the Italian press.
If we accept that there were no female jazz musicians in pre-war Poland, then the title of the first lady of Polish jazz should be awarded to Wanda Warska. In 1954, the singer joined Krakow's first jazz band, MM 176. The group, led by Jerzy Borowiec and featuring future Polish jazz stars Andrzej Kurylewicz and Andrzej Trzaskowski, was very popular at the time. It might have contained too many artistic individualities, however, as it ceased to exist a year later.
Warska continued her career performing in the bands of pianist Andrzej Kurylewicz, whom she married in 1958. Together they performed at the historic First Jazz Festival in Sopot, amongst other events. In a review of this performance, a Jazz magazine columnist wrote that Warska's improvisations were a little stilted, but they made a good impression nonetheless. It could be that she did not feel as comfortable in this style as she did performing sung poetry. After all, it was the latter that Warska had committed her career to.
In the 1960s, Polish jazz singers were introduced to the world through the band NOVI Singers. Its leader and main composer was Bernard Kawka, yet many journalists covering the group's concerts focused on Ewa Wanat. Initially invited to the band so it could better reflect the dynamics of jazz, she soon began to play the first fiddle as well. Critics from Poland to New Zealand admired her vocal skills. The reviewer from Wellington-based The Dominion described a NOVI Singers concert featuring Namysłowski's quartet:
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[...] a brilliant and beautiful combination of Namysłowski's playing with the singing of the NOVI vocal ensemble. Speaking of beauty: I could listen to the singing of the lovely Ewa Wanat day and night...
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Marianna Wróblewska, photo: Bartosz Krupa / East News
The golden age of Polish vocal jazz dates back to the first half of the 1970s. By then, NOVI had already recorded their best albums, and Bernard Kawka was leaving the band, but it was at that time that some of the most dominant voices in Polish jazz were making their debuts. In 1972, an album titled Sound of Marianna Wróblewska was released. The Polish singer, compared by reviewers to Dinah Washington, was accompanied in the recording studio by outstanding instrumentalists, including Mieczysław Kosz, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Kazimierz Jonkisz and Tomasz Szukalski.
The A-side of this album contains interpretations of the jazz standards (e.g. My Funny Valentine or Don't Explain by Nina Simone), whilst the B-side features pieces by Polish composers performed in English. Undoubtedly, with the album Sound of Marianna Wróblewska, the publisher aimed to reach a foreign audience. The singer had a vast vocal range but was also very expressive and daring in her interpretations, which polarised the audience. Regardless of musical preferences, it was hard to remain indifferent to Wróblewska's works.
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Ewa Bem, photo: Agnieszka Sadowska / AG
The year when Wróblewska's debut was published, the main prize of the Lublin Jazz Singers' Meeting festival went to another young artist. It was awarded to Ewa Bem, then associated with the band Bemibek. The band played music combining jazz, rock and bossa nova. Bem had a great sense of swing rhythm, and she sounded very natural in such a repertoire. In the 1970s, she quickly became a star well beyond the jazz scene. With her next band, Bemibem, she recorded the album Bemowe Frazy, which featured hits combining the catchiness of pop, the lightness of bossa nova and the expressiveness of jazz swing.
In 1975, the artist performed at the Jazz Jamboree with the band Mainstream. The programme of that festival reads:
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As Ewa Bem's talent matures, one can see her working more and more closely with outstanding jazz musicians.
And indeed on stage she was accompanied by Jan ‘Ptaszyn’ Wróblewski, Wojciech Karolak, Czesław Bartkowski and Marek Bliziński. The greats of the Polish improvised scene, having such a star in their line-up, were trying their hand at – pun intended – mainstream jazz. It was Wróblewski who wrote one of Bem’s greatest hits. His composition Żyj Kolorowo (Live Colourfully) set to words by Wojciech Młynarski earned the singer an award at the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 1979.
‘The Magic Lady’
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Urszula Dudziak, photo: Łukasz Dejnarowicz / Forum
Whilst Bem was making a career in Poland, the world was admiring another Polish jazz singer. The artist was Urszula Dudziak, who in 1973 emigrated to the United States with her husband, the violinist and saxophonist Michał Urbaniak. Even before the artist changed her address, she had decided to change her musical style. In 1972 the album Newborn Light was released, on which Dudziak treated her voice like an instrument and processed it through various electronic effects. After difficult beginnings overseas, the couple's career gained momentum.
The album Newborn Light was released by the CBS label which organised Dudziak's concerts in the most prestigious American concert halls. In 1975, the album Urszula was released. Urbaniak was the only non-American instrumentalist who appeared on the record. The album starts with the song Papaya, which in the 21st century would suddenly become a worldwide hit. Most of the pieces didn't have words and were sung with an arsenal of electronic effects and vocal techniques. In his book, Brodacki cites the opinion of pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski, who called Urszula one of the most interesting phenomena of the contemporary jazz scene and praised her new album:
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This is undoubtedly the most mature, impressive and musically sophisticated proposal that this extraordinarily talented singer has so far presented to her fans.
Similar opinions were expressed more and more often in the foreign press. In 1975, in the pages of the Los Angeles Times, pianist and music critic Leonard Feather called Urbaniak and Dudziak ‘the most unexpected and astonishingly innovative pair of musicians to break into the American music market’. In the readers' poll of DownBeat magazine, the Polish singer took fourth place in the female vocalist of the year category. She gave way only to Flora Purim, Sara Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Over the years, Dudziak has managed to stay at the top. In 1979, she recorded the album Future Talk with famous bassist Marcus Miller. Three years after that, she joined the group Vocal Summit, where she performed with Bobby McFerrin, amongst others. The great Gil Evans invited her to join his orchestra during the Jazz Umbria festival in Perugia. He called her the ‘Magic Lady’.
Polish vocalists with global impact
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Barbara Trzetrzelewska, 2010, photo: Jacek Bednarczyk / PAP
In the 1980's more Polish jazz vocalists caught the attention of the American public. One of them was Barbara Trzetrzelewska, a Kraków-based artist who started in the pop vocal group Alibabki. In 1987, as Basia, she recorded the album Time and Tide, which made her a smooth-jazz and sophisti-pop star in no time. Her debut album occupied first place in the ‘contemporary jazz’ list of the weekly Billboard for four consecutive weeks. Her second LP, London Warsaw New York was a similar success, being named the Billboard album of the year in the ‘contemporary jazz’ category ahead of albums by Kenny G and Quincy Jones. Both releases went platinum in the USA. In mid-90's The Sweetest Illusion was released, which featured Trzetrzelewska as a composer. The album went gold in the USA and platinum in Japan.
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Grażyna Auguścik, photo: Krzysztof Kuczyk / Forum
Grażyna Auguścik, a graduate of Berklee College of Music who has been living in Chicago since 1994, has also achieved critical acclaim in America. The singer has made over a dozen albums: from jazz through traditional music to reinterpretations of Witold Lutosławski's works. Auguścik has collaborated with Jim Hall, John Medeski and Randy and Michael Brecker, amongst others. In the pages of the Chicago Tribune, music critic Howard Reich complimented the artist, writing:
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Grazyna Auguscik is emerging as an individual voice in a world of sound-alike singers.
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Aga Zaryan, photo: Culture.pl
In Poland, female vocalists balancing between jazz and pop enjoyed enduring popularity. Amongst them should be mentioned Dorota Miśkiewicz, Aga Zaryan and Anna Maria Jopek. In 2002 the latter recorded the album Upojenie together with the renowned guitarist Pat Metheny. Although sung in Polish, the album received reviews in the foreign press. In The Guardian, John Fordham wrote:
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Her delicate musicality and some understatedly sympathetic work by a Polish band not only reflects Metheny's own affecting lyricism and affinity with vocal music but conjures something independently strong out of it.
The rise of female instrumentalists
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Wiktoria Jakubowska, 2021, photo: Tytus Żmijewski / PAP
In the last decade, female instrumentalists have started to appear more and more on the Polish jazz scene. Amongst them, pianists predominate. Joanna Duda is the backbone of the Wojciech Mazolewski Quintet and has pursued a solo career as a talented composer and instrumentalist. Pianists Aga Derlak and Kasia Pietrzko are band-leaders of groups that have recorded their first well-received albums and received their first prestigious awards (Fryderyk and Mateusz). On the initiative of saxophonist Paulina Owczarek, the Krakow Improvisers Orchestra was established, in which she is accompanied by Malwina Kołodziejczyk on tenor saxophone. Amongst the female drummers, Wiktoria Jakubowska, who performs in the band Jerry & The Pelican System, is widely acclaimed. Joanna Glubiak with the double bass player Ksawery Wójciński constitutes the strength of the rhythm section of the group Polmuz. Finally, in 2020, the debut album of the O.N.E. Quintet was released – a group consisting of five female instrumentalists. If a similar trend continues in another decade, such a line-up is unlikely to surprise anyone.
Written by Jan Błaszczak, August 2021
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