Paweł Kaczmarczyk

Paweł Kaczmarczyk, born in 1984, is an outstanding jazz pianist, arranger, composer and an animator of the Kraków jazz scene. For many years, he has been the artistic director of the Jazz Juniors Festival. He was the first Polish person to sign a record contract with the prestigious German label ACT Music.

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Paweł Kaczmarczyk

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Paweł Kaczmarczyk, photo: Bartłomiej Senkowski

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PAWEŁ KACZMARCZYK TRIO @ Nine Gates Festival, Beijing | JAZZ PO POLSKU Live in China 2017

Beginnings

Kaczmarczyk graduated from the Music Academy in Katowice but also was informally educated by his long time master Janusz Muniak – a legendary Polish tenor saxophone player. In 2001, together with Michał Barański (a double bassist) and Paweł Dobrowolski (a drummer), he founded KBD Trio. Its music could have been described as warm and revealing its creators fragility while it was rather deprived of dynamic contrasts or avant-garde ideas. In this line-up they won the two most prestigious jazz contests in Poland: the Jazz Juniors Contest and Jazz nad Odrą (Jazz on Oder) in 2002. Soon they released an album entitled Live, which was a recording of their concert on Katowice Radio. That same year, Paweł Kaczmarczyk received the Jazz Oscar, a prize awarded annually by the Association Melomani.

Collaborations

In 2008 he participated in the recording session of Rafał Sarnecki’s Song From A New Place (ARMS Records). One year later he appeared on the album by Kraków-based New Bone band entitled It’s Not Easy. Thanks to invitation from Grzech Piotrowski, he recorded on Emotronica. In 2010 he was nominated for the Fryderyk Awards (most prestigious award of the Polish music industry) in the ‘Best Jazz Musician Of The Year’ category. In the same year he recorded an album Kinetyka with Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski. In subsequent years he continued his cooperation with Rafał Sarnecki (The Madman Rambles Again, released in 2011 by renowned Spanish jazz record label Fresh Sound), New Bone (Destined, 2012) and Grzech Piotrowski’s World Orchestra project.

In 2015, Slovakian label Hevhetia released Kaczmarczyk’s album Something Personal, recorded together with Maciej Adamczak and Dawid Fortuna as the Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio. The album consists of seven compositions, including an interpretation of the piece Teardrop by British duo Massive Attack.

The next album by the Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio entitled Vars & Kaper: DeconstructiON was released a year later. This time, the artists drew their inspiration from works of two prominent film music composers – Henryk Wars and Bronisław Kaper. Wars composed music for such pre-war hits as Miłość Ci Wszystko Wybaczy (Love Forgives Everything) and Umówiłem Się z Nią na Dziewiątą (I Have a Date With Her at Nine). Kaper was the first Pole to win the American Academy Award – he received it in 1954 for the music to the film Lili. While working on the album, Kaczmarczyk’s trio was accompanied by DJ Mr Krime. Their cooperation, built on works of two outstanding – and perhaps somewhat forgotten – compositors, bridges jazz and electronic music. For the ‘brave, creative and innovative approach to the classic pieces presented on the album Vars & Kaper: DeconstructiON and for the memory of outstanding Polish composers, Henryk Wars and Bronisław Kaper’, the artists received Polish Radio Three Music Award ‘Mateusz" in the ‘Jazz Music-Event’ category.

Paweł Kaczmarczyk celebrated the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining independence by turning to Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s music. In November 2018, the album Kaczmarczyk vs Paderewski: Tatra was released. The artist’s main inspiration was the series Album Tatrzańskie from 1884, in which ‘the best pianist among prime ministers’ compiled a number of highlander songs from the region of Tatra mountains. Kaczmarczyk vs Paderewski: Tatra was the largest-scale project in Kaczmarczyk’s career so far – the recordings included a 15-person brass section, synthesisers as well as exotic percussion instruments played by French musician Mino Cinelu, who previously collaborated with Miles Davis, Branford Marsalis, Pat Metheny and Elton John. The album was received with great interest. During the tour following the premiere tickets, sold out quickly.

Kaczmarczyk appeared on stage or recorded with musicians such as Lee Konitz, Jon Christensen, Mino Cinelu, Emil Mangelsdorff, Poogie Bell, Hadrien Feraud, Eivind Aarset, Arild Andersen, Theodosii Spassov, Janusz Muniak, Piotr Wojtasik, Adam Pierończyk, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Monty Waters, Kazimierz Jonkisz, Rafał Sarnecki, and Grzech Piotrowski.

Kaczmarczyk is the founder of the Directions in Music project initiated in 2010. It is a series of concerts, during which, together with invited guests, he presents the works of the most prominent figures of the jazz scene. So far, Kaczmarczyk and his guests performed the music of such artists as Dexter Gordon (guest: Piotr Baron), Hank Mobley (guest: Tomasz Grzegorski), Freddie Hubbard (guests: Jerzy Małek, Piotr Schmidt), Jan Garbarek and Keith Jarrett (guest: Grzech Piotrowski), Ray Charles (guest: Jorgos Skolias), Elvin Jones (guest: Kazimierz Jonkisz), Woody Shaw (guest: Piotr Schmidt), Eric Dolphy (guest: Maciej Obara), Thelonious Monk (guest: Karol White), Chet Baker (guest: Robert Murakowski), Sam Rivers (guest: Marek Pospieszalski), Michael Brecker (guest: Szymon Kamykowski), Zbigniew Seifert (guest: Mateusz Smoczyński), Stan Getz (guest: Janusz Muniak), Herbie Hancock (guest: The Headhunters), Elis Regina (guest: Marita Alban Juarez), Sławomir Kulpowicz (guests: Paweł Jarzębski, Janusz Stefański) and Zbigniew Wegehaupt (guest: Andrzej Olejniczak).

He performed at numerous international festivals, including Leverkusener Jazztage (Germany), Jazz Meeting Berlin (Germany), Palatia Jazz Festival (Germany), 12 points! European’s New Jazz (Ireland), Gulf Jazz Nights (United Arab Emirates), 12th International Festival of Jazz Piano (Czech Republic), Warsaw Summer Jazz Days (Poland), Jazz en Nord (France) and The Jazzy Colours Festival (France).

From 2012-2018, Paweł Kaczmarczyk was the artistic director of the Jazz Juniors Festival.

Discography

Kaczmarczyk/Barański/Dobrowolski Trio - Live (Radio Katowice/Jazz Forum 2005)
Paweł Kaczmarczyk - Audiofeeling (ARMS Records 2007)
Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Band - Complexity in Simplicity (ACT Music 2009)
Rafał Sarnecki - Songs From A New Place (ARMS Records 2008)
New Bone - It’s Not Easy (GOWI Records 2009)
Grzech Piotrowski - Emotronica (Alchemik Studio 2009)
Leszek HeFi Wiśniowski feat. Krzesimir Dębski - Kinetyka (EW Music 2010)
Rafał Sarnecki – The Madman Rambles Again (Fresh Sound Records 2011)
New Bone – Destined (CM Records 2012)
Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio – Something Personal (Hevhetia 2015)
Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio, Mr Krime – Vars & Kaper: DeconstructiON (Hevhetia 2016)
Paweł Kaczmarczyk – Kaczmarczyk vs Paderewski: Tatra (Fundacja Idea Sztuki 2018)

Contact:

Management (worldwide)
e-mail: kaczmarczyk.impresario@gmail.com

Artist’s website:

www.facebook.com/PawelKaczmarczykMusic/

Originally written in Polish by jazzarium.pl, March 2014. Updated by MG, October 2020.

ignacy jan paderewski