Włodek Pawlik Trio visits the Netherlands: an excellent opportunity for jazz lovers
Włodek Pawlik Trio visits the Netherlands: an excellent opportunity for jazz lovers
The internationally renowned jazz trio of Włodek Pawlik Trio starts September in the Netherlands. The opportunity for Dutch jazz lovers to see and hear the Grammy Award winner live. In this more about the trio and the later background of its namesake Włodek Pawlik. They will perform in Bimhuis on September 4, click here for tickets.
Włodek Pawlik
Pianist, composer
As early as 1998 we were able to enjoy the music of this pianist and composer in the Netherlands during his participation in North Sea Jazz, then still in The Hague. †Mr. Pawlik can equally well be described as the Vladimir Horowitz of jazz or the Oscar Peterson of classical music. In other words, he’s all his own man and everyone should hear him play.”
Besides jazz, Pawlik also composes film and symphonic music. He wrote most of the film scores for Polish productions. A mutual collaboration is the collaboration with the Dutch director Marleen Gorris for the film Within the Whirlwind. This is a 2009 German-Polish-Belgian drama film starring Emily Watson. She plays a prisoner of the Stalin regime who can only survive thanks to the support.
For his more classical work, Misterium “Stabat Mater” won the Fryderyk Prize in 2005 in the classical & vocal music category. The Fderyk in Poland is equal to the Edisons in the Netherlands.
The 2015 album America is on the interface between classical and jazz. On the album, Pawlik pays tribute to his fascination for America in the title piece. He composed this on his first trip to the US in 1988, but he does not forget his Polish identity, hence the addition of jazzy interpretations of the works of Chopin and Paderewski.
The premiere took place in the concert hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw and is one of the few albums that can be listened to on Spotify.
In 2019 Pawlik/Moniuszko – Polish Jazz. Thereupon he honors the “a father of Polish opera” – Stanislaw Moniuszko.
Music and Poetry
The choice of Pawlik as composer for Within the Whirlwind seems obvious. This film is not the only project in which he bridges the gap to poetry. He has written works on Shakespeare’s Sonnets and on the poetry of Polish poets such as Iwaszkiewicz, Zagajewski, Czechowicz and Baczynski.
For those familiar with Polish romantic literature, the name Anhelli will immediately ring a bell. The pieces of music on this CD are inspired by the narrative poem by Juliusz Słlowacki himself. On MMusic in a comprehensive review of this album Polish. We receive a translation (open PDF). A concert has been recorded in its entirety on YouTube.
Recently the album Baczyński 100 in honor of the centenary of the young Polish poet Krzysztof Baczyński, who died in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. jazz and alternative pop. The concert took place on August 1, 2021, on the 77th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising at the Amphitheatre in Wola, Warsaw.
excellent interpretations by Natalia Wilk and Marek Bałata, from the universal and timeless phenomenon of Baczyński’s poetry. The composer’s improvisations for the piano are of powerful artistic value and create a powerful, delicate, even impression of the instruments.
Grammy Award
A (provisional?) highlight is the collaboration with trumpeter Randy Becker and Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra and Adam Klocek on Night in Calisia. This project was created on the occasion of the 1850th anniversary of Kalisz and is a six-part jazz suite.
Performed in 2011 and the album in Poland in 2012 in the US in 2013. The album won the Grammy Award for the best album by a jazz ensemble in the best year.
The further occupation of the trio
The trio has the classical line-up with Pawlik on piano, Damian Kostka on bass and drummer Cezary Konrad.
Cezary Konrad
In addition to being a drummer, Konrad is also a composer and arranger. He was educated at the Fr. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. His first notable successes as a member of the group Central Heating Trio (together with the pianist Filip Wojciechowski), winning first place at the Jazz Juniors festival in Krakow in 1990 and at „Pomorska Jesień Jazzowa – Klucz Do Kariery” in 1991. The trio also reached the finals at two international festivals in 1990 : “IX European Jazz Competition” in Leverkusen (D) and “Europe Jazz Contest” Hoeliard (BE).
After collaboration with Susan Weinert, that form in the album – Meeting in Krakow (1996) and he formed his own first band: Cezary Konrad Quartet. Their album Een Spiegel… many reflections was released in 2000. Leszek Możdżer, among others, contributed to this album.
After a long collaboration with the singer Anna Maria Jopek, in 2005 he started a new musical project with his name, the group Cezary Konrad ‘the NEW BAND’. In more recent years, Cezary Konrad has worked with various formations within Poland and beyond, collaborating with big names within Poland (Możdżer, Stańko) and beyond Karrin Allyson, Randy Brecker, Deborah Brown, Mino Cinelu, Joe de Franco, Volker Greve, Gary Guthman, Omar Hakim, Paul Imm, Didier Lockwood, Pat Metheny, Nippy Noya, Susan Weinert.
He also gives solo concerts, in which he presents the magical world of percussion to the public. In Poland, he has been the best Polish jazz drummer for the readers of the monthly magazine Jazz Forum for years, as well as among the last election in 2021† With the arrival of the Włodek Pawlik Trio to the Netherlands, we can now also get to know his qualities live here.
Damian Kostka
Bassist Kostka was trained at the Akademia Muzyczna im. Karola Lipińskiego in Wrocław and the Akademia Muzyczna im. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego in Poznan. In his career, this musician also received several awards. For example at the well-known festival Jazz nad Odrą from Wrocław, Krokus Jazz Festiwal and Poznań Blue Note Competition as a member of Global Schwung Quintet. Besides the collaboration in this quintet, Damian Kostka plays in formations such as Maciej Kądziela Trio, Weezdob Collective and of course the Włodek Pawlik Trio, which brings him to the Netherlands.
MMusic
For this article we were allowed to use lyrics by MMusic† They also provided the photo of Piotr Fagasiewicz. This initiative by Małgorzata Smółka formed a bridge between the Polish and Dutch jazz scene. The arrival of the trio is the final act of MMusic. This concert is made possible by the Polish Ministry of Culture and is a collaboration with us and the Polish Culture NL foundation.
Go to the Bimhuis site now and order your tickets today for this unique concert in the Netherlands.