Dansing
The band’s debut album was Dansing, recorded in 2015 and released a year later by Muzyka Odnaleziona, a label run by Andrzej and Malgorzata Bieńkowski. The band members tell us:
On the album, you will find everything that attracted us to traditional music: simplicity of form, sincerity of expression, spontaneity, enthusiasm, danceability and our delight at a discovery of the size of a new land. For us, this discovery is the music of the Kielce region with its melodic meanders, vast range of colours and sounds, music that can be extremely joyful and sometimes extremely mournful.
Dansing features traditional ‘chłopy’ and ‘śpiwy’, country-urban waltzes, tangos and foxtrots. Stanisław Witkowski’s playing can be heard here, and one piece also features Władysław Bąk (1936-2021), an accordionist from the Bielina municipality. Michał Żak says:
We managed to record the material for the first album in just two days. We didn’t work to a specific plan, we simply wanted to record the most beautiful melodies we had discovered in Sędek. Stanisław Witkowski came to us by bus from Opatów to the studio in Częstochowa. He was all dressed up, in an elegant suit. He played his part, and after two or three attempts we had the material ready.
Simon Broughton wrote for Songlines: ‘Unlike other well-known Polish bands playing old repertoire, in Tęgie Chłopy the brass section, led by saxophone, clarinet and tuba, dominates over the strings. [...] A lively and authentic debut.’ The editor of the most popular magazine devoted to the various facets of folk music from around the world rated the album four out of the maximum five stars.
Andrew Cronshaw in fROOTS magazine adds:
The band’s goals have been achieved and even exceeded. Their sound is powerful, joyful, swirling and dance-inducing – if they moved to the 1950s, they would be the most sought-after band in south-central Poland. Their music adds a new impetus to the ongoing mazurka craze.
Wedding!
What do weddings played by Tęie Chłopy sound like? Released in 2017 by the Wodzirej publishing house, the album Wesele! [Wedding!] is an attempt to reconstruct the traditional rite of passage in album form. Among the polkas, obereks, chłopy, wedding marches and chants, there are also more modern elements: in one song, we can hear an electric guitar and a Yamaha keyboard, while in another song, the traditional lyrics are recited by a rapper (Mikołaj Kubicki).
The album was recommended by Leszek Możdżer (‘You can see the intellectual work put into recognising the rules governing folk music, you can hear the care for the traditional form, which dictates that it should be carried carefully and cautiously, so as not to damage its edges’), Wojciech Waglewski (‘It is enough to restore its [the source music’s] wisdom and energy, to add skill and the undying joy of playing, so that it comes back to us again and becomes a gem of our culture’), and even Robert Makłowicz, referring in his opinion to the Hungarian Táncház movement on which the Polish House of Dance was modelled:
Thrillingly ecstatic, serious and witty at the same time, modern and traditional – this is the latest album by Tęgie Chłopy. If we have to imitate the Hungarians of today, then we should be just as creative in our approach to our folk musical heritage, so that it returns to where it came from, namely under the roof of our houses. Thanks to Tęgie Chłopy, this bold plan has a chance of success.
Rocket!
Creating new songs is not always against the ethos of performing traditional music in crudo (it is worth emphasising that the activity of musicians nurturing and reviving rural music is not just a musical hobby, it is also a social activity). Rakieta! is a collection of original songs based on traditional melodies or composed according to the style known from the Świętokrzyskie region’s villages. The album was recorded with children in mind, but it’s not an attempt to simplify village music. One of the inspirations for recording a ‘children’s album’ was the parental experiences of the band members, but also the reactions of children to their music. It turns out that the music of Tęgie Chłopy meets with exceptionally complimentary reviews from the youngest audience, repeatedly demonstrated by spontaneous dancing, unfettered by social conventions. ‘In the old photos, the boys are dressed in tiny suits and little caps, and it was the same with the music – country music was for everyone’ – says Mateusz Kowalski.
The lyrics of the songs were composed by Marcin Żytomirski. Katarzyna Ryzel, a critic for Ruch Muzyczny, notices poetics similar to Brzechwa or Tuwim in them, and emphasises that they are friendly to any audience. In the context of discussing the output of Tęgie Chłopy, it is worth mentioning in particular the album’s closing song Mamo [Mum], a tribute to the musical teachers and female teachers from Sędek and the surrounding area. The song’s lyrical subject is eager to start learning music, and mentions more instruments and the people who play them. The peloton opens with Stanisław Witkowski:
Mum, the most in the world
I would like to play the clarinet
Follow this path to Cisów
Let WItkowsk bring you up
In addition to the musicians of Tęgie Chłopy, on Rakieta! we will also hear Adam Strug (in the song Gdy Nie Przychodzi Sen [When the Dream Doesn't Come], the trombone of Marcin ‘Kabat’ Kowalczuk and the singing of Stefan Żak, son of Michał. ‘It wasn’t an artificially created situation’ – says Stefan’s father. ‘He participated in the rehearsals, which took place in my house, and somehow it turned out like this.’