Kołodziejczyk admits that his creative spark ignited whilst still living in his family home. His parents graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, and his father was also an inventor. He started playing the piano at the age of four. Kołodziejczyk’s formal adventure with this field of education began at the Stanisław Wiechowicz Primary Music School in Kraków. After its completion he was accepted to the Władysław Żeleński State Secondary Music School. There he studied under the famous pianist and pedagogue Irena Rolanowska, amongst others. Amongst his first inspirations, Kołodziejczyk mentions video game music, which he became interested in at a young age:
It was this 8-bit scene, composers trying their best to imitate the richness of form with a synthesiser. So they were creating a new aesthetic that stayed with me for a long time. I already had access to a computer myself, so I tried to experiment, write some pieces on it. I even attended the Children’s Jazz Workshop in Margonin, where a computer class was set up. That’s where my first songs were created collectively. That got me interested in composing in general.
Kołodziejczyk suspects that composing using a sequencer at that time is still reflected in his way of composing today. His starting point is always an idea, and not the constraints of a particular musical ensemble. In Kołodziejczyk’s work, these were most often non-standard. All this is due to the composer’s fondness for unusual combinations of instruments. Kołodziejczyk recalls that he founded his first ensemble whilst still a student at the Żeleński school. It was a septet, which included such instruments as cello, bassoon, Fender Rhodes and voice. To his satisfaction, he was allowed to present these pieces as part of his final school exam.
In at the deep end
In 2005, Kołodziejczyk began his studies at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, at the Jazz and Popular Music Faculty. Although he studied in the class of Dr Wojciech Niedziela, it seems that the most important pedagogue he met in Silesia was the visiting professor Ed Partyka. Kołodziejczyk recalls:
At the first class I showed him my seven-piece ensembles, which I always called orchestras. He listened to them, complimented me, and then immediately proposed that I compose an hour-long suite for big band as part of my diploma exam in piano. [...] His classes were based on practice. First we played with the band, and then we decided together what worked and what did not. This is the opposite of how you usually work at the academy, where you mainly look at notes. Thanks to him, my first recording was made by a big band.
Other important musicians whom Kołodziejczyk met in Katowice include his classmates from the year: drummer Michał Bryndal and bassist Maciej Szczyciński. These two instrumentalists not only take part in almost all of the composer’s projects, but also co-found the jazz trio Stryjo with him. Kolodziejczyk explains:
In this band we do the exact opposite of what I do as a composer on a daily basis. We come up with songs live as we play. We try to make the material as melodic and song-like as possible – the kind of material where you can clearly see if you get along or not. We told ourselves that if we play a gig that doesn’t work out, we disband. We’ve been a band for over 12 years and there’s no sign of that changing.
Another acquaintance from his year who played a key role in the development of the musician’s career was Piotr Damasiewicz. The highly regarded trumpeter and composer lived with Kołodziejczyk in his dormitory and – more importantly – participated in the work on the young artist’s suite. Impressed by the suite recorded under the title Extreme Conditions, he presented it to Piotr Turkiewicz, the artistic director of the Jazztopad festival. The latter decided to take a risk and commissioned the young composer to write a piece for big band. The result of this work was Chord Nation – a five-part suite at the crossroads of jazz and new classical music. The work, released on CD, was the phonographic debut of the artist, but also became one of the biggest premieres of the year. Pianist and composer Piotr Kałużny praised the work in Jazz Forum magazine, writing:
I am full of admiration for the aesthetic courage and creative determination of Nikola Kołodziejczyk, expressed through it. Not only did he create a musical matter rich in content, but he also included in it, unprecedented in this form, a specific expression and drama.
This widespread recognition resulted in three Fryderyk nominations. Kołodziejczyk’s album, released by For Tune label, eventually won the award in the 'Phonographic Debut of the Year – Jazz Music' category.
