We always play for the people
In the United States, there is certainly no other duo of Polish musicians like Andrzej Winnicki and Krzysztof Medyna, who have been performing together for several decades. And this without dividing them into musical genres.
It is quite possible. We have been playing together practically continuously since the early 90s, and we started our musical cooperation even earlier, in the late 70s in Poland. In reality, the history of WM Project began with our meeting in the Szczecin club “Pinocchio” in the fall of 1978. I had returned from playing under contract in Sweden, and Andrzej was already performing in the club at that time as the leader of the band Antidotum. When he suggested that I play together, I did not hesitate for long. We formed a new jazz formation called Breakwater, which formally came into being in 1979.
You became interested in music very early in your life.
That’s true. My mother Krystyna was a trained pianist, and my grandfather Aleksander Szwarc was the conductor of the Representative Orchestra of the Polish Army. When I was born, my grandfather was already retired, but he played the piano and flute at home. My mother and grandfather were therefore my first teachers. I remember that at some point I also had a private piano teacher. I had musical predispositions from an early age and I myself was always eager to play. So you could say that music fascinated me from childhood and it has continued to this day. I only became interested in the saxophone as a teenager, and my fascination with jazz began when I saw a performance of the Polish band New Orleans Stompers playing Dixieland, or New Orleans jazz, on black and white TV. I remember that my jaw literally dropped when I saw them, and most of all when I heard them, because in Poland at that time, during the Gomułka era, such music practically did not exist in the public space. Since then I have been fascinated by jazz, first the aforementioned Dixieland, then swing, and finally bebop, fusion, free jazz and all the rest.
You always emphasize that as a musician you have never had any idol or artist that you modeled yourself after.
At various stages in my life I have been inspired by many jazz artists. I can mention here John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Paul Desmond. Currently, depending on my mood, I also listen to various jazz musicians. However, I have never had any role model and I have not copied anyone’s solos. I think that is also thanks to this I have managed to create my own, recognizable style. Because I always just play my own style, trying to adapt to the artists I currently perform with on stage.
When you founded Breakwater, you were already experienced musicians.
As a musician, I was already involved in bands in the 1960s. I played in the Pocztylion Band, operating at the “Pocztylion” club in Szczecin, which later changed its name to Bryczka Cioci Filomeny. In 1970, we took part in the “Szczecińska Wiosna Orkiestr”. I also performed regularly at the Szczecin University of Technology Students’ Club “Kontrasty”. In 1971, together with the Quintet of pianist Janusz Weiss, I took part in another edition of the “Szczecińska Wiosna Orkiestr” review, this time taking first place in the jazz band category. In 1973, as a member of the Quidam Jazz Quartet, I performed at the Jazz nad Odrą festival in Wrocław. So there were really many of these concerts and various festivals at that time. I played practically all the time, being constantly on the road. One of the most interesting experiences was definitely the performance with the band Pat 78, when I had the opportunity to accompany the Italian singer Farida during her concerts at the Szczecin “Kaskada”. Andrzej, in turn, made his debut at the Jazz nad Odrą festival in Wrocław in 1976 as the leader of a jazz quintet signed with his own name. In 1977, he became one of six finalists in the competition of the International Jazz Pianists Festival in Kalisz, and in 1978, as the leader of the Antidotum formation, he performed again at the Jazz nad Odrą festival.
So we can say that you were doomed to success, which came quite quickly.
From the beginning, both on and off stage, we got along great, which brought tangible results. In March 1979, already as a quintet, Breakwater performed at the Jazz nad Odrą festival in Wrocław, winning the main prize in the group category. At the same time, I was recognized as the best instrumentalist of the festival, which had probably happened only once before. In the early 1980s, we performed in the best jazz clubs in the whole country, including: in the legendary Warsaw “Akwarium”, as well as at festivals such as: Pomeranian Jazz Autumn, Jazz Neptun, Jazz Jamboree and during Zaduszki Jazzowe.
Instead of establishing your position in the country, you quickly found yourself in the West.
At the beginning of 1982, the band went to the USA, where we left as a 6-person group accompanying the famous singer Jerzy Połomski. During a three-month tour, we performed in 11 states, and when the tour ended, Andrzej, bassist and I decided to stay in America. So only three musicians returned to the country. Andrzej started playing with Americans at that time, traveling a lot around the States, and I was not interested in traveling, because I had already done that stage, functioning in this way for years in Poland. So I was only involved in music locally.
Breakwater suspended its activity at that time for practically ten years.
Musically, we parted ways for a while, but we were still in touch and the band never disbanded. In 1992, Jacek Puchalski organized a jazz festival in the New York consulate, in which I took part together with musician friends. Andrzej appeared as one of the guests and suggested that I reunite Breakwater. I happily agreed and since then, with breaks, we have been playing together all the time. Most often as a trio, but we also perform in a quartet and even as a duet. It all depends on the current circumstances. When we reunited, we invited bassist Holden Nagelberg and drummer Dave Anthony to join our band. We performed at many popular New York clubs: “The Five Spot”, “Bar 55”, “Zanzibar”, “Club Bene”, “Down Town” and “Van Gogh’s Ear”.
However, you had to wait almost a decade for your first studio album in the United States. By the way, you recorded it under a slightly changed name.
In 1999, we started recording our debut album on the American market, entitled In the Bush, at J-Bird Records. Andrzej was the producer and composer of most of the songs. The recording of this fusion album featured two world-famous musicians – bassist Mark Egan from the Pat Metheny Group and drummer Rodney Holmes from the Carlos Santana Group. Just before the album was released, it turned out that a rhythm & blues band called Breakwater had been active in the States and released albums in the 1970s, which forced us to change our name to Electric Breakwater.
The beginning of the 21st century is a kind of return to the roots of Polish jazz in your performance.
In the early 2000s, we decided to change the musical profile and change the band’s name again. Komeda Project was created and under this name we recorded two albums with music by the “father of Polish modern jazz”, Krzysztof Komeda. First, in 2007, we released the album Crazy Girl, and two years later the album Requiem appeared on the music market. The latter album was ranked in the top hundred best jazz albums released in 2009 by The Village Voice magazine. Tomasz Stańko’s album Dark Eyes achieved such success in the same year. Renowned jazz musicians took part in the recording of Requiem: double bassist Scott Colley, drummer Nasheet Waits and trumpeter Russ Johnson.
And only then, after the success of “Komeda Project”, came the time for WM Project, which has formally existed since 2017.
Yes. We invited drummer Michał Winnicki, Andrzej’s son, and double bassist Jeff Dingler to the new line-up. Both were already very formed musicians at that time. Michał, a graduate of Rutgers University, was the only one in his year who had completed two faculties: classical and jazz percussion. Jeff, on the other hand, has recorded and performed with many famous jazz musicians. The beginning of the activity under the WM Project banner was the release of the album From a Familiar Place in 2017, which, in addition to original compositions by the band members, included such classics as “Take Five” by Paul Desmond and “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by Joe Zawinul, enriched with a hip-hop groove. The album was included on the “February 2018 DownBeat Editors’ Pick”. In addition to the permanent members of WM Project, the recording was attended by trombonist Marshal Gilkes, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and the excellent Polish guitarist Rafał Sarnecki. I will also add that our discography is complemented by an album of archival radio recordings of the Breakwater band from 1979-1980, which was released by Gad Records in September 2022 in Poland, and the album Breakwater Live in New York City 1993-1995, documenting our performances in various clubs in the metropolis in the early 90s, which appeared on the market in 2023.
This year, a book by Dr. Mariusz Wolf entitled “Krotochwile, saxofon i jazz, czyli cała moje życie” was also released on the domestic publishing market, which is a record of conversations with you. This is undoubtedly a must-have for jazz lovers in Poland.
Zosia Kłopotowska, editor-in-chief of Kurier Plus, had been encouraging me to write such a book for years, but I wasn’t too convinced. Finally, journalist Mariusz Wolf offered me a convenient collaboration on the basis that we would just talk every now and then, and he would record and write it all down. That’s what happened, and step by step, the book finally saw the light of day. I think it contains a lot of interesting anecdotes and many figures important to the history of Polish jazz. It could certainly be interesting for many people, because a significant part of the history was previously completely unknown.
In the context of music publications, one cannot fail to mention the album “New York Flavors”, which you recorded a year ago with the outstanding jazz pianist Adam Makowicz.
Since 2012, I have been regularly performing with Adam, and we recorded the aforementioned album as a duet. In 2019, we had the opportunity to perform at the legendary New York jazz club Blue Note as Makowicz-Medyna-Dingler Jazz Ensemble, a trio with Jeff Dingler, who is also a regular member of WM Project. After the pandemic, in 2023, we also played in the same line-up at the Keystone Korner Jazz Club in Baltimore. In March of this year, I played 3 concerts in Florida with Adam. I remember that time fantastically. We were very well received everywhere and played to full houses. Besides, there are no other concerts with Adam. Maybe also because we always play for people. This is the case with both Adam and Andrzej. I follow the principle that the audience is the most important and I enjoy playing live and being on stage the most. I consider every performance, when people are happy after the concert, a success and the greatest satisfaction for the artist.
What can the participants of the Festival in the Center expect from your performance?
Among other things, we will play Andrzej’s compositions from our album In the Bush, which are kept in the fusion style. These are very catchy numbers. There will also be arrangements of well-known standards, such as the aforementioned “Take Five” or “Mercy Mercy Mercy”. We will also play our own versions of songs by The Beatles. These are well-recognizable numbers, and not only for jazz fans, because everyone knows The Beatles’ hits. We will also definitely perform at least one composition by the late Krzysztof Komeda, whose 95th birthday anniversary passed a few weeks ago. He was an artist who opened the eyes of Americans when it comes to Polish contemporary music, Polish jazz. I must admit that I am looking forward to this performance, because Andrzej and I have not played in Greenpoint for many years. At the Festival in the Center as WM Project we will perform in our regular line-up, namely Andrzej Winnicki on keyboards, Michał Winnicki on drums, Jeff Dingler on double bass, and of course me on saxophone.
Thank you for the conversation and I wish you many experiences during the Festival.