The members of the band once called their music ‘joc’n’roll‘, from the Romanian word joc, which means dance, fun. They also managed to spare some space in their repertoire for lyrical songs. Their international character manifests itself event in the instruments they use – they include the Greek plucked bouzouki, the Romanian cobza, and the Hungarian string brács.
The band
Maria Natanson is the leader of the band: she is a vocalist and a violinist and she also plays the kemenche, a bowed instrument from the region of the Black Sea and the Middle East. She learned Romani and Russian songs from her mother and she attended music school from the age of six. At the age of fifteen, she left the school to hike in the Polish-Slovak border region and learn music from old masters. She performed with many groups: Kałe Bała, Village Kollektiv, Transkapela, Romani Bacht, Burdon. Between 2007 and 2010, she was a soloist for the Saint Nicholas Orchestra.
Piotr Majczyna is the band’s artistic director, as well as singing, playing the bouzouki, the guitar, and the mandolin. He has also performed with Odpust Zupełny, Jahiar Group, Swoją Drogą, Się Gra Trio, and the Saint Nicholas Orchestra. In addition, he is a journalist and a radio host.
The last co-founder of Čači Vorba, formed at the end of 2005 in Lublin, is Robert Brzozowski, a double bass player and a long-time musician at the Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed with Majczyna in the Saint Nicholas Orchestra between 2003 and 2011. He also worked for many years with the Się Gra Trio.
The first artist to join the trio was the accordionist Bartłomiej Stańczyk, who was replaced by Paweł Sójka (a member of Lubliner Klezmorim, a collaborator of the vocalist and conductor Borys Somerschaf) in 2008. Since the end of 2013, Rafał Gontarski is Čači Vorba’s accordionist.
Joanna Ulatowska played the Hungarian viola for the band for some time. After her, Čači Vorba recruited the drummer Lubomyr Ishchuk (a member of the Lviv-based Burdon; a Ukrainian from the Zakarpattya region) who was replaced by Sebastian Szebesta in 2013. He, in turn, was replaced by Stanisław Siedlaczek in 2016. In 2010, Piotr Majczyna described the band to Folk24.pl:
None of the members of Čači Vorba are Romani. Considering our music, we see such questions as a sign that our performance is convincing. We are not directly descended from the musical traditions that are our inspiration. Each of us has a personal story of finding a fascination with Carpathian and Balkan music.
Albums
Their debut album Szczera Mowa (the Polish translation of Čači Vorba’s name) was released in May 2008. It was recorded in the Rogalów Analogowy studio and published by the Red Taboret record label. Prepared two years later by the Oriente music company, the re-edition for the German market also included two additional live songs. At that time, Čači Vorba rose to international fame. In his review, Simon Broughton, the editor-in-chief of Songlines, the most important folk music magazine, called the album ‘one of the most carefully hidden gems of the Polish folk.’
Čači Vorba’s second album, Tajno Biav (meaning ‘Secret Wedding) enriched their favourite musical territory – the Romani, the Balkans and the Carpathians – with new inspirations: Caucasian music, Balkan pop, French musette, and film scores. Natanson and her friends chose songs about ‘love, God, looking for lost roots, and the position of a woman in traditional societies,’ as they said in a press release. Małgorzata Jędruch-Włodarczyk of the folk periodical Gadki z Chatki (editor’s translation: Hut Chat) published in Lublin marvelled at the album:
Tajno Biav disturbed me. It disturbed me with the perfect sound, the splendid sound engineering, the masterful performance and the concluded structure of the musical story.
In October 2015, the band released their third album, Šatrika (meaning ‘The Wandering One’). The songs were inspired by Romani music, but also Turkish and even Indian traditions. The album contains complete transformations of the source material, the musicians prepared songs in which different traditions clash and bring out a fresh sound.
They reworked Emina Ramadanović’s song Boli Me Moja Sudbina and titled it Boli Me Moja Praznina, their interpretation engulfed the original melancholic 1990s pop song in fire and dramaturgy. The album also included Pre Stepo Zamardo with lyrics written by Bronisława Wajs, a Romani poet writing under the pen name Papusza who was discovered by Jerzy Ficowski. The release also included a guest appearance by Bart Pałyga, the free spirit of Polish folk, a member of Mosaik and Masala and a collaborator of Karolina Cicha.
Awards and concerts
One of the biggest successes of Čači Vorba was their concert at the WOMAD festival (the biggest and most prestigious world music event) in 2014 and the Top of the World title awarded by the expert journal Songlines in 2010 and 2011. In Germany, the group received the German Record Critics Award in 2010 and the Folk Phonogram of the Year in 2011 in Poland.
Apart from the award, Songlines also included Čači Vorba’s songs on the mixtapes included with the magazine – at first, Dear O Mama, then Me Pacav. In turn, their Te Aştept made the Discover Poland compilation issued in 2014, and Amaro Kheliben was included on the Cross Culture Festival compilation album published in 2016.
During the first year of activity, they received second prize at the Nowa Tradycja (editor’s translation: New Tradition) Polish Radio Festival. It is excellent at seeking out the best young artists who have a creative approach to transforming traditional music. The same year, Čači Vorba was also awarded a distinction at the Festiwal Piosenki Słowiańskiej (Slavic Song Festival) in Poznań and the Ogólnopolski Festiwal Piosenki Górskiej i Folkowej (National Highlander and Folk Song Festival) in Zakopane.
Čači Vorba performed in Czechia, France, Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine and Italy.
Originally written in Polish by Jacek Świąder, Dec 2017, translated by AP, 4 Dec 2017
Discography:
- 2008 – Szczera Mowa
- 2011 – Tajno Biav – Secret Marriage
- 2015 – Šatrika