Rafał Sarnecki is a jazz guitarist and composer born in Warsaw. For many years, he has been an active participant in New York’s music scene.
He started to gain recognition in Poland after his success at the International Jazz Guitar Competition - Guitar City 2002 in Warsaw where he received the 1st award. In 2005 he moved to New York where he received a scholarship at the prestigious Jazz and Contemporary Music program at the New School in Manhattan. In 2008 he finished his undergraduate degree from The New School with Academic Honors. In 2010 he received his MA degree in jazz performance from the Queens College CUNY also in New York. He studied under the direction of John Bollenbeck, one of the most famous guitar teachers. In 2015, he received a PhD in Composition and Theory of Music at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2018, he moved back to Poland and began working at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź as a lecturer of composition and arrangement, as well as jazz guitar.
Rafał has performed as a bandleader in jazz clubs and festivals in China, Malaysia, Chile, Israel, the East and West Coast of the US and many European countries. In 2019, as part of the Jazz Po Polsku Live in Asia project, he performed in South Korea. In his career so far, Sarnecki accompanied such jazz stars as Ben Wendel, Alex Sipiagin, Joel Frahm, Gary Thomas, Janusz Muniak, Wojciech Karolak and Adam Pierończyk.
He has recorded four solo CDs. The debut album Songs From a New Place (2008) was nominated for the Fryderyk 2009 Award, the Polish equivalent of a Grammy. Rafał's second album, The Madman Rambles Again, was released in 2011 by the Fresh Sound New Talent label. Dave Sumner from All About Jazz placed the album among the 12 most interesting jazz releases of 2011 in the Editor’s Choice section. The album was also appreciated in Poland, among others by the editors of the Hi-Fi i Muzyka magazine. The 3rd album Cat's Dream was released by Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records in Fall 2014. It was nominated for the Fryderyk 2015 Award in the Jazz Album of the Year category. Rafał Sarnecki’s fourth original album entitled Climbing Trees was released in 2018 by the New York label Outside in Music.
Despite his return to Poland and a position at the Academy of Music in Łódź, Sarnecki actively maintains his long-standing relationship with the American jazz scene. He regularly performs in New York clubs, playing with such bands as Lucas Pino Nonet, Annie Chen Octet, David Bertrand Quartet and his own sextet. His collaboration with Lucas Pino, a saxophonist and composer from Arizona, who is considered one of the most original instrumentalists of his generation, is particularly fruitful. Sarnecki and Pino could also be heard live in Poland, as they played a series of concerts together there.
Artist’s websites:
- rafalsarnecki.com
- www.facebook.com/rafalsarneckiguitar/
Contact:
Email: rafal.sarnecki@gmail.com
Discography:
Solo albums:
- 2018 – Climbing Trees (Outside in Music)
- 2014 – Cat's Dream (Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records)
- 2011 – The Madman Rambles Again (Fresh Sound New Talent)
- 2008 – Songs from a New Place (Arms Records)
As a sideman:
- 2020 – Babooshki: Będziemy się Krężyli (Multikulti)
- 2018 – Lucas Pino's No net Nonet: That's A Computer (Outside in Music)
- 2018 – Annie Chen Octet: Secret Treetop
- 2018 – Wang Chenhuai: Journey
- 2018 – Ma*JiD: Sound of a Flower
- 2018 – Karolina Beimcik: Zorya (Multikulti)
- 2017 – David Bertrand: Palmyra & Other Places (Blujazz)
- 2017 – WM Project: From a Familiar Place (WM Records)
- 2017 – Lucas Pino: The Answer is No (Outside in Music)
- 2017 – Shota Lee Big Band: Kibo-Ho
- 2017 – Karolina Śmietana: Illusion (Recart)
- 2016 – Jan Kus: Faith
- 2015 – Marita Alban Juarez: Aguas Calientes (Youkali Music)
- 2014 – Lucas Pino: No Net Nonet (Origin)
- 2014 – Annie Chen: Black Pieces
- 2009 – Paweł Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Band: Complexity in Simplicity (Act Music)
- 2008 – Oktawia Kawęcka: Oktawia (Fonografika)
- 2007 – Tomasz Filipczak/Piotr Rodowicz i Przyjaciele: Seweryn Krajewski Smooth Jazz (Polskie Radio SA)
- 2002 – Marzena Grzymała: Pomarańczowe Szczęście
Updated by MG, October 2020.
