Paweł Brodowski: Hello there! My name is Paweł Brodowski and you’re listening to Rebel Spirits, a podcast about a group of artists, dreamers and freethinkers who sought freedom in the art of improvisation.
Throughout this series, I’ll be telling you the tales of 5 Polish jazz musicians. Each of them came of age in the 1950s and became mesmerised by the music they heard on the radio.
You’ll hear about difficult decisions, compromises and longing for a better world. How they went from learning to play jazz from worn-out vinyls, to becoming icons that continue to inspire the music world today.
In this very first episode we’re meeting the queen of Polish jazz: Urszula Dudziak. Urszula is a brilliant vocalist who has been exploring the possibilities of her five-octave range for over fifty years. Her tireless search for sounds led her to develop a unique style of wordless vocalization processed through electronic devices. Her voice sounds almost otherworldly. Not only did she bring a new quality into jazz music but she also introduced it to popular culture. In addition to all that, Urszula is not only a prolific musician but also a great story teller. Here’s how her story goes.
Coming up on the Rebel Spirits!
Ula: When I was four, my parents gave me this wonderful jewel for Christmas, a beautiful accordion. I was a cute and beautiful child, I looked like Shirley Temple. Nobody could ever imagine a family celebration back then without a performance from sweet little Urszula. So I played various patriotic songs, war songs like [she sings] Siekiera, motyka or Rozszumiały się wierzby płaczące on this accordion. I played, and that, I suppose, was the very beginning of my extraordinary journey, my musical adventure.
Paweł: Did you go to music school?
Ula:I did but they threw me out. It was because of two reasons. One was that I was a suspicious character because during recess I played [she scats] too-doo-bee-woo-doo-woo-bah… I played boogie-woogie and that was frowned upon.
Paweł Brodowski: A few years passed before Urszula heard the first sounds of jazz. After the war and until the early fifties, jazz was a symbol of western culture's moral decay and was prohibited in the Soviet Union and the communist countries of the Eastern Bloc. This started to change after Stalin’s death. Censorship loosened and some echoes of western culture started being tolerated. One of the ways jazz reached Poland was through “Voice of America”, a radio station funded by the US State Department. The station was meant to bring American culture and censorship-free news to the people locked up behind the Iron Curtain. One of the daily shows was dedicated entirely to jazz...
Ula: “The Voice of America Jazz Hour” and Willis Conover announcing the programme every evening out of Washington, that blew us away. We were all ears. We listened religiously and I… I fell in love with his voice, really. I was so embarrassed, but I was in love. Such a sexy, wonderful, low voice. And he bombarded us all, from the other side of the Iron Curtain, with that music I also fell in love with: jazz.
Paweł: And that’s where you heard... Ella.
Ula: Ella made a huge impression on me and I understood two things… one, that you could sing like that, without words, and sing like an instrument.
Ula: (...) I remember singing Lady Be Good. It must have had 18 choruses and I knew them all by heart.
Paweł Brodowski: Urszula’s father gave her a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Thanks to that she listened to Count Basie, Duke Ellington and of course, Ella Fitzgerald.
Ula: Going back to that reel-to-reel tape deck, I would listen and imagine that I was singing along with the big bands… [she scats]. Now, pay attention. I’m going to jump 14 years ahead. I’m sitting in Manhattan, at Willis Conover’s apartment. His wife Shirley is cooking while Willis picks up my album “Newborn Light”, which I recorded with Adam Makowicz for Columbia, and he says, “Ula, I’m playing your album tomorrow on the radio”. [she laughs]. Now tell me that dreams don’t come true!
Paweł Brodowski: Indeed, dreams do come true. Could Willis Conover ever have dreamt that his show would hypnotize young people on the other side of the world? Or even better, that an entire generation of outstanding Polish jazz musicians would be born listening to it?
Ula: Let me come back once more to Willis Conover. In Zielona Góra it was some… some kind of a revolution. We were interested in nothing but jazz, American jazz. Jazz allowed us to spread our wings, it was a call to freedom, we wanted to be free, wanted to play whatever music we liked and to dance to it, because we always danced to the standards, didn’t we. It was something… this whiff of the West, something beautiful, magical, it inspired us and rescued us, it gave us peace and good health. And a clarity of mind, and beautiful sensitive hearts. I’m still so grateful for all this today. So I think a lot about Willis Conover, what beautiful job he did, introducing us Poles to this beautiful music which we loved with all our hearts.
Paweł: IAnd suddenly… where you lived at the time, in Zielona Góra, a pianist appeared, by the name of Krzysztof Komeda. I hear that was an event that completely changed your life.
Ula: It did!
Paweł Brodowski: You’ve already heard an excerpt from Krzysztof Komeda’s “Kattorna” during our intro and you’ll definitely hear his name and music more than once in this series. As a pianist and composer, Komeda was a pioneer and free spirit of Polish jazz. His iconic album “Astigmatic” remains the most cherished relic of the early days of Polish jazz.
Paweł Brodowski: Back to the story. In 1961 Komeda’s trio was touring with a cabaret troupe called “Tingle tangle”. After a show in Zielona Góra, someone told him there was a young jazz singer that he should listen to there. The next day, Urszula went to see him.
Ula: I walk in and see Krzysztof at the piano. He says hello, I say hello back… “OK, I heard you sing?”, “Yes, well, I do”. “So what will you sing?” “I’d like to sing Goody Goody, and maybe A Foggy Day in London Town” and he says, “What key?” “Any key,” I reply [she laughs]. So he starts playing. I sing those two, and I think also The Nearness of You, the ballad, and he asks, “What are you doing during the summer holidays?” And that was April, maybe May, so I respond, “I don’t have any plans yet”. “OK, so come join me, you can sing with me at the Hybrydy Club.”
Ula: My legs went weak. They had turned to jelly. I thought to myself, what? Me, with Komeda? In Warsaw?
Paweł Brodowski: Urszula packed her bags and went to Warsaw,
Ula: And that’s how it began. I sang for Krzysztof for a whole month and that month flipped my life upside down. I began to believe that maybe, just maybe the world - whether it was a large world or just a small world - but one that might open up where I could actually sing for larger numbers of people who might like it.
Paweł: And then at some point you met Michał. How did that happen? Was it at a gig at Hybrydy?
Ula: Yes, Hybrydy was the centre of jazz music at the time. And we all knew each other within the jazz community pretty well. And we would bump into each other and say hi and then we would get to know each other a bit better, and then a bit more.
Paweł Brodowski: We’ll be talking with Michał Urbaniak in episode 3 of this series. When Urszula met him in Hybrydy, he was one of the few Polish musicians who had already traveled and played in America. He was very talented, young but already experienced.
Paweł: You travelled across Scandinavia in 1964, I think… very early on?
Ula: Yes, that’s right... Four years in total.
Paweł: Could you tell us about this period in a few words? What happened there?
Ula: Michał drank most of our earnings away and I gambled away the rest [she laughs].
Ula: We mainly played Sweden. We hadn’t considered playing elevator music in restaurants. But we were lucky, we had Karolak and Dąbrowski, and we managed to stick to playing proper jazz.
Ula: So, we became quite a sensation on that market, partly because none of the great Swedish musicians would stoop to play restaurants, that would have been an embarrassment for them.
Paweł: And there in Scandinavia you recorded your first joint album with Michał… called “Urbaniak’s Orchestra”.
Ula: Yes, you’re right, that’s where we recorded it.
Paweł: And there you sang…
Ula: Ochi Chernyie [she laughs].
Music playing. Album: Urbaniak’s orchestra, Composition: Dark Eyes (Russian Twist)
Paweł: Towards the end of the sixties you returned to Hybrydy. And you returned with your own music, right?
Ula: Not just yet, not quite. In those years, ‘68, ‘69, ‘70… for two years or so, we played upstairs at Hybrydy and polished our music. Myself and Michał, and we were joined by Paweł Jarzębski, Czesław Bartkowski and Adam Makowicz.
Ula: And there, upstairs, our music was born. And then we travelled all over Europe, polished the repertoire in German clubs, Austrian, Swiss, Italian too - but mainly German. We travelled to all the clubs we could. I sang in student dives where they smoked so much it was black with soot, and they drank beer after beer and they smoked till the air was black. I often thought to myself, ‘God, how much longer can I sing like this?’ It felt impossible, I was simply suffocating in all that smoke.
Paweł Brodowski: Once the 1970s had got going, Urszula and Michał had become pioneers in Polish fusion jazz. Here’s a sample from their 1973 album “Super Constellation”.
Music playing. Album: “Super Constellation”
Paweł: During that period Ula came up with a brand new vocal jazz style. This was a breakthrough moment for her.
Ula: I always joke that I have a poor memory for lyrics that’s why I sing without words but that’s obviously untrue. it was an accident, really. We were travelling around Germany and Michał had an electric violin by then and he liked to snoop around music shops and he’d bring his finds to the hotel, guitar pickups and such, and he’d play… and I heard his experiments, these strange sounds, clipped this way and that...
Ula: So he hooked up his violin to these gizmos but as soon as he was out the door I’d connect my microphone and suddenly… Wow! [she sings] Echoes, strange sounds, I went crazy for them, I loved it so much. And so, of course, I started snooping around music shops with him too, testing and choosing the ones I liked… my voice was suddenly from a different planet, I loved the sounds I could make and was completely hooked and just went with it, experimenting, practising, getting better and going deeper.
Paweł Brodowski: On the piano in the band was Adam Makowicz, who we will talk to in episode nr 4. While playing together, Urszula and Adam discovered a special musical understanding between each other.
Ula: So I told you how we travelled Europe and played every club we could, right? It was during that period that our duo emerged. I’d always been Adam’s greatest fan in the band. I was fascinated by his approach to the piano, his harmonies, his unconventional take on music in general. He practised so much, was so absorbed, it was his passion and it was like magic. In turn, he was fascinated by me and my vocal experiments. So during our gigs there were always these moments for this duo of ours.
Paweł Brodowski: The two of them had ended up making an album called “Newborn Light”. It was the first time Urszula used electronic effects on a record.
Music playing. Album: Newborn light
Ula: Our album “Newborn Light” was the turning point because… that’s where I truly became myself, as an artist. I was free, unfettered, I flew where I pleased. My only framework was that I listened to what Adam was playing and through his music I travelled into another dimension and I was happy, I felt good. I discovered this amazing truth: if an artist has this feeling of beauty, of spirituality, then they can share this feeling with their listeners. And that is something wonderful, truly. And this album, well, I love this album.
Paweł Brodowski: In 1973, after a few years of extensive touring around Europe, Urszula and Michał moved to New York and took a copy of the album with them.
Ula: I will never forget how we were in a taxi from JFK and were talking with the driver, who was from Yugoslavia. He asked us, “And where are you from?” “From Poland.” “How long have you come for?” “We’re musicians, a couple months maybe?” Now, Michał had never mentioned to me that we’d come for longer than that. I probably wouldn’t have gone. I couldn’t imagine leaving, travelling so far, for so long. And the driver said, “If you stay nine months, it’s as if you’ve had a child. Then you’ll never leave, or you’ll miss America forever”. The saying goes, whichever shore you’re at, it’s the wrong one… so when you’re in America you miss Poland but when you’re in Poland you miss America.
Paweł Brodowski: Those first years in America were not easy for a pair of young musicians from Poland. But then came the day that changed everything.
Ula: Exactly, so we were in John Hammond’s office discussing our band’s album and he said we’d have to wait, he’d have to consult somebody and so on and on. So Michał asks him, “Perhaps you’d like to listen to the album Urszula recorded with a pianist”.
Paweł Brodowski: This was of course the “Newborn Light” album Urszula made with Adam Makowicz.
Ula: And he said “OK then”. He had some time to spare so he put the record on and after maybe a minute he turned down the volume and said, “I’m sorry Michael, but Ursula comes first” [she laughs]. That’s what he said, those were his exact words. They would release my record first and that’s what happened. It was a stroke of luck because we had no money, we could barely survive and this saved us. We got our advance and we could live.
Paweł Brodowski: The Amercian edition of Newborn Light gained immediate recognition among the public. And among jazz musicians, it was the talk of the town.
Ula: George Duke took “Newborn Light”, this record with Adam Makowicz, to Los Angeles and played it to Flora Purim, you know, from the famous Brazilian duet with Airto Moreira. “Listen how this girl sings.” And she said, “Who is this bitch?” [she laughs]. “This is what I wanted to do,” Flora said. “This is my music, she stole my music!” Or something like that.
Paweł Brodowski: Urszula was living in the world’s jazz capital and her career was skyrocketing. The seventies was also when she wrote one of her biggest hits, Papaya, in 1976.
Ula: (…) we were driving to Philadelphia, we had a Dodge van, this little eight-seater. The band sat at the back and I sat next to Michał. He was humming something and I was practising scales [she sings boldly]. And I sang this and that, inventing melodies. At the hotel Michał unpacked his keyboard [she sings quietly] and said, “How did that go, what you were practising in the car?” So I sang it back to him [she sings] and that’s how it developed. He put it all together and there it was [she laughs]. We performed it, saw that people liked it, great, let’s play again. (...)
Music playing: Papaya
Paweł Brodowski: Thirty years later, Urszula got a phone call about “Papaya”
Ula: You know, it was incredible, I was in Switzerland at the time with some girlfriends, I wanted to finally learn how to ski. And there, somebody called me, from a radio station, and said, “Do you know what’s happening?” And I said, “I don’t, what’s happening?” “ With Papaya!” “I don’t know what you mean, what about Papaya?” “Go online and see for yourself.” And indeed, I saw what was happening with Papaya in the Philippines.
Paweł Brodowski: Papaja became a huge hit in the Philippines, and everyone was dancing the Papaya Dance. Even soldiers.
Ula: So soldiers were doing a drill, one, two, one, two, and then suddenly they threw their guns on the ground and started dancing the Papaya. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw it. I thought, like a small naive child, maybe there’ll be no more wars, thanks to Papaya. I was delighted with the idea.
Ula: (…) I’m proud of this number and I love performing it. I sing it at the end of every concert, people love it and when I see how they enjoy it, I enjoy it too and I’m never bored of it. And I sing it and sing it and sing it and sing it.
Paweł Brodowski: “Newborn Light” may have started Urszula’s career as an independent artist, and the dance formed around “Papaya” might have been all the rave, but it’s a different album that holds the most special place in Urszula’s heart.
Ula: (...) Here I’m looking at my beloved album, one very close to my heart. I dedicated it to Jerzy Kosiński, “The Painted Bird”.
Paweł Brodowski: After divorcing Michał Urbaniak, she fell in love with Jerzy Kosiński, a Polish-American author most famous for his novel “Painted Bird”. They were a couple until Jerzy’s death separated them in 1991.
Ula: I recorded this album thinking about Jerzy. And after the recording I felt this tiniest little bit lighter. Twenty grams lighter, I would say. The recording allowed me to focus, to immerse myself. I gave it all I had and I love it. The album is Ula. “The Painted Bird” is me. That’s all [she cries].
Music playing. Artist: Michał Urbaniak’s Fusion, Album: Atma, composition: Kama
Ula: We are extremely grateful to American culture and, most of all, to jazz music, which is all about reaching and sharing happiness by playing jazz: when you do, you can be yourself and express yourself beautifully. That’s what we learned from our brothers in America.
Paweł: Jazz gave us the opportunity to play this music in our own way.
Ula: Our own way. Exactly.
Paweł: Being ourselves.
Ula: Being ourselves, which is the most beautiful thing, to use your own potential in full, to find your talent, because everyone has one. First you have to seek inspiration. And we found it in American jazz, and then we created something of our own. We learned the mechanism, how to express ourselves beautifully from the beautiful foundation of jazz which we learned from our American brothers in jazz. And then we did our own thing with it and it was beautiful.
Paweł Brodowski: And what is Urszula up to these days?
Ula: I am turning 78 this year and I have read in a new study that between the ages of 60 and 80 people are at their most creative and I can say with certainty that I agree, I can confirm that it is a beautiful time in my life. I can do whatever I like, and I’m curious about everything. I read, sing, play instruments, I’ve returned to the piano, I play classical music, I’ve built a house in the country and everything is brilliant. I meet people, great people are drawn to me - musicians, artists. I’m building an intellectual and artistic centre in a village in Podlasie, a little village in the middle of nowhere. I’m building the house and the centre, and it will shine all over Poland, all over Europe, all over the world, all over the universe. That’s how I feel, hello?!
Ula:Basically, I’m only just getting started really. Paweł, you will hear more of me yet. Here and there [she laughs].
END
Listen to the full audio of this episode here