During the first years of their activity, NOVI recorded only one EP consisting of four tracks composed by Kawka. At that time, his works were under the strong influence of Bill Evans' cool jazz. Kawka even attended his concert during a stay in Finland, where he travelled to earn some money by playing in clubs and restaurants. However, it wasn't until 1967, when NOVI began dividing their time between stage performances and the recording studio that Kawka emerged as a talented composer.
Kawka wrote six of the fourteen pieces for the group's acclaimed debut Bossa Nova. On this album, NOVI drew from Brazilian music but never abandoned traditional swing. From then on until Kawka's departure in 1973, the group released albums almost every year. In doing so, NOVI demonstrated not only artistic prolificacy but also broad horizons. They recorded with the famous trumpeter Idrees Sulieman in West Germany, collaborated with the Polish Radio Jazz Orchestra and recorded variations on Frederic Chopin's compositions. Finally, they hosted the most outstanding Polish jazzmen in the studio: Stańko, Namysłowski, Urbaniak, Ptaszyn Wróblewski, to name a few. Over a few years, they became one of the most prominent jazz vocal groups in the world. Their status was officially confirmed by a ranking published in the prestigious DownBeat magazine in 1978.
In 1974, Kawka immigrated to the USA. There, it quickly became evident that his all-around musicianship was a great asset. Whilst in Chicago, Kawka joined Krzysztof Klenczon's group. As a member of the band led by the famous voice of Polish ‘big beat’, he played the saxophone. He also made a living performing in the theatre as a violinist. Whereas as a vocalist, he joined forces with his old friends from the Polish jazz scene, Michał Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak. In 1975, the Polish-American group Funk Factory, which they co-founded, released its only album. On the occasion of its re-release, Nate Patrin wrote the following for Pitchfork.com:
The melodies push songs close to the fusion equivalent of sunshine pop, especially on cuts like ‘Watusi Dance’ and ‘Next Please’ where Dudziak and Kafka trade mostly wordless voices, at which point they’re subsumed into Urbaniak’s electric violin and Gulgowski’s synths to create some spectacular mutant harmonies.