Kinga Głyk

Bassist and composer, winner of the Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej 2021 award. In her music, she combines the jazz tradition with blues influences and a funky groove.

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Kinga Głyk, fot. Emily Turkanik

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Kinga Głyk was born in 1997 in Rydułtowy. She was born into a musical family. Her father, Irek, a vibraphonist, composer, arranger and a respected session musician, has performed at the foremost artists of Polish jazz and rock. Her mother, Ewa, graduated from a music high school, specialising in the piano. It is therefore no surprise that their daughter was drawn to the world of music from an early age. The only surprising fact is that Kinga did not attend music schools. Although her father studied at the Academy of Music in Katowice and was a scholarship holder at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, he did not encourage her to follow this path at all.

Due to unpleasant experiences with music schools growing up, my parents decided to spare me such emotions. Dad and mum themselves helped me a lot in understanding what playing an instrument was all about. The many hours spent with my dad in the practice room and also on stage shaped my awareness. It gave answers to questions: why play at all, what to focus on and how to work.

The bassist immediately adds that choosing such a path requires a great deal of self-discipline. A teacher can be of great help here, as long as they do not impose rigid structures and patterns. In Głyk’s case, it was her father. A musician who soon ceased to be just a teacher, but also became a co-founder of the band. Głyk, who started playing bass guitar at the age of 11, joined the Głyk P.I.K. Trio just a year later. The group also included her older brother Patryk.

Dad never encouraged us to go in this direction. He wanted to protect us from the various disadvantages associated with this profession. However, we voluntarily chose the same path. Today, I am very grateful that I had such a start, because playing in the family band enabled me to quickly come up against the reality of the stage. It gave me an excuse to work on improving my skills every day.

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Kinga Głyk, fot. Emily Turkanik

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Głyk adds that the challenges she faced in the ensemble, as well as observing artistic environments up close, motivated her to find her own way. These challenges were not just about instrumental proficiency. We are, after all, talking about a child. The artist admits that due to her choice of this musical path, she had limited time to play with her peers, and at school she had to rely on the forbearance of her teachers when she had to miss a few lessons once again.

I probably would have preferred to play football, eat ice cream and watch cartoons more often as a child, but looking back on it, I'm glad my path was the way it was.

On your own

She has recorded two albums with the Głyk P.I.K. Trio: Released At Last in 2013 and 2014’s Kolędy Narodów (Carols of the Nation). On the latter album, the group is accompanied by Christian vocalist Mate.O. Despite her still very young age, the bassist was starting to think about recording original material.

I wouldn’t say that I imagined myself as a leader from a young age. I just followed my heart and didn’t want to give in to the fear that I wouldn’t manage to accomplish something.

Głyk was keen to write down her subsequent ideas. She recalls that from the beginning, composing seemed to her a very interesting process. Eventually, she was persuaded to record original material by her father. From him she learned not to wait until what she does seems perfect, because objectively it will never be so – it is a matter of personal preference. According to Głyk, you have to give it your all, see things through to the end and keep moving forward. Even when that means moving at a pace of two steps forward, one step back. It was with this premise that the bassist recorded the album.

Rejestracja (Registration), which was released on her 18th birthday. Alongside her father (this time in the role of drummer), the album featured pianist Joachim Mencel, Jorgos Skolias and Natalia Niemen among others. Rejestracja received very good reviews. ‘Her style has none of the bassy showmanship and circus dictated by waterfalls of slap. She is perfectly aware that the bass is the foundation, everything else can only be an add-on’, wrote Piotr Iwicki in Jazz Forum, comparing the young Silesian’s style to the playing of Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. At this stage, it is difficult to find greater compliments.

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The cover of Kinga Głyk’s album 'Registration', 2015, photo: press materials provided by the producer

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A year later, Głyk recorded her concert at the Theatre of Ziemia Rybnicka. The performance, recorded as a quintet, was released on an album entitled Happy Birthday Live by GAD Records. In retrospect, however, it seems that another event that year had a greater impact on the bassist’s future career.

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Kinga Głyk Band Live - "New"

Breakthrough

Alongside Kinga Głyk, Eric Clapton and the internet play leading roles in this story. The bassist decided to record herself performing the song Tears in Heaven, in an arrangement by Jeff Berlin. In an interview with Mery Zimny for JazzPress, she admitted that she did it more for herself than with an audience in mind. She had always liked this version very much, but when she first encountered it, her hands were too small to play it. A few years later, she finally decided to tackle it and document the result of this attempt. Her cover of Clapton instantly became an internet hit. Shared on social media, the recording was astronomically popular after just one week – it had been viewed more than 22 million times.

This viral success not only allowed Głyk to make a name for herself in the media, which is not particularly interested in jazz or blues, but also created a buzz that did not go unnoticed by representatives of the recording industry – and also outside Poland. Eventually, the bassist signed a contract with Warner Music Germany. A year later, the label released Dream – Głyk’s first album with a new, international line-up. Israeli pianist Nitai Hershkovits, British saxophonist Tim Garland and American drummer Gregory Hutchinson took part in the recordings. The album won the artist not only critical acclaim, but also praise from the German recording industry – the following year, Głyk was nominated for the prestigious Echo Jazz award in 2018.

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The cover of Kinga Głyk's album 'Dream', 2017, photo: Warner Music Group

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In 2019, Kinga Głyk’s second album was released by the phonographic giant. On Feelings, the bassist was accompanied by American drummer Calvin Rodgers and Polish pianist Paweł Tomaszewski. It is a highly eclectic album, which features, alongside Głyk’s compositions, variations on songs by Lennie Tristano, Duffy and even the crazy funk and R&B star Rick James. Already in the album’s opening track Let’s Play Some Funky Groove, Głyk shows that she is comfortable following the path paved by The Meters or George Clinton. ‘The mixture of all possible styles cooked up by Kinga Głyk sounds perfect, posing a difficult task for those who would like to attribute her music to any particular style [...]’, Rafał Garszczyński wrote about Feelings for JazzPress. Although the bassist performs much more frequently in Germany and other Western European countries than in Poland, she has also received recognition in her home country. In 2021, she received the Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej award in the Discovery of the Year category.

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The cover of Kinga Głyk's album 'Feelings', 2019, photo: Warner Music Group

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Plans

The end of 2023 saw the release of Głyk’s fifth album, Real Life, on which she has worked with some of the leading names in American jazz, R&B and funk. These include drummer Robert Searight (Erykah Badu, Kirk Franklin, Snoop Dogg), EWI player Casey Benjamin (Robert Glasper Experiment, among others) and producer Michael League (Snarky Puppy). Most of the tracks recorded for the album are the bassist’s own compositions. In doing so, Głyk shatters the figure of the brilliant child whose career is based on virtuoso skills. The artist admits:

Above-average attention [focused] on someone can shape a lot of unhealthy self-images in a young person’s head. On top of that, there’s a lot of pressure that comes down suddenly and it’s hard to get out from under it. And it’s crucial to give yourself the freedom to make mistakes, to allow yourself to be ignorant.

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