You will appear on stage at the Polish-Slavic Centre once again, including for the second time at the Jazz Festival.
Yes, and I really enjoy performing there. It is a great place to play jazz, and the audience is always great. There is a large group of Poles who love jazz and know it. I am glad that I will sing at the Festival for the second time in a row. For me, it is certainly an honor that the organizers invited me again. For years, the Centre has been promoting my work and helping many talented artists. And in addition, in its beautiful interiors, it promotes jazz, for which the authorities of this institution deserve great recognition. I would like to personally thank both the director Agnieszka Granatowska and Bożena Konkiel for their many years of support and for always believing in me.
This time, however, you will perform as a duet.
I do not want to repeat my performance from last year on a one-to-one scale. This time, I will perform my compositions with piano accompaniment. I have just released my first album “Ashes And Diamonds”, so I will definitely sing many of the songs that are on it. These will be premiere performances for the Polish audience. In addition, there will traditionally be several jazz standards known from the repertoire of Elly Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday.
The aforementioned album is probably one of the most important events in your career so far.
I think it is even the most important. The album, which I recorded at The Bunker Studio in Williamsburg, was released on April 4 and has so far received great reviews from both listeners and people from the industry. I treat this album, released by Truth Revolution Records, as the culmination of my creative work to date. I do not hide the fact that recording it cost me a lot of effort and sacrifice. However, the satisfaction is enormous. The fact that I am happy about the release of this album is an understatement. I am overjoyed, because that is why I came to the States. To sing and record jazz.
What songs ended up on your debut album?
The album contains a total of 9 songs, mostly composed by me. Additionally, there are two jazz standards, “Don’t Explain” and “Stormy Weather”, and a song by Stan Borys with lyrics by Cyprian Kamil Norwid entitled “Coraz to z Ciebie jako z drzazgi smolnej”, which I arranged in a jazz style. I have to thank Stan here for giving me permission. This is the only song with Polish lyrics on the entire album. I also sang the same song on the album in English and it is titled “Ashes i Diamonds”. This is also the name of the entire album.
Is it a strictly jazz album?
Yes, but with pop elements and it also has a lot of poetry. Many songs are inspired by poetry. I already mentioned Norwid and Stan Borys, but the album also includes a song inspired by the poem “Jednego Serca” by Adam Asnyk. So you could say that I smuggled our native, Slavic note into the album.
Apart from poetry, where did you draw inspiration for your compositions?
Of course, as always, from life. All compositions were created in the last few years. For example, the song “New York City Streets” was born during the pandemic, when I was walking around Manhattan. I like walking around the city, but then the streets looked empty and sad. A depressing image, like after the apocalypse. And then this song was created, which actually gives hope that better times will come and it will still be possible to find peace and love in New York. In turn, I composed the song “Fight for Life” for my son, who had to have 3 heart surgeries right after birth, and at the age of 9 he had meningitis and his life was threatened several times. He survived, which deserves a miracle. Living with him for months in the hospital, I met many sick and suffering children. I dedicated this song to such little ones, but also to those doctors and nurses who do their job with dedication and devotion. On the other hand, the piece “Jazz Polonaise” was inspired by cooperation with Brazilian musicians during the pandemic. When they play jazz, they often smuggle some ethnic inserts and themes into their songs. Something characteristic only of their culture. I thought it would be worth doing something like that also when it comes to Polish music. And hence this instrumental “Jazz Polonaise”, where the form of our polonaise has been preserved, although the song also includes swing.
You invited some really famous names to record your album.
Yes. I really wanted to invite artists who guarantee the right level of music and who will also give something of themselves. First of all, you can hear the voice of the legendary Stan Borys himself on the album in the song “Coraz to z Ciebie jako z drzazgi smolnej”. In addition, some of the best musicians on the New York scene participated in the recordings, including the excellent jazz pianist and Grammy Award winner David Kikoski, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, saxophonist Stacy Dillard, double bassist Ricky Rodriguez and drummer David Hawkins. I recorded the two jazz standards mentioned above with the participation of Spike Wilner, an excellent pianist and owner of the jazz clubs Smalls and Mezzrow.
The visual cover of the album also makes an impression.
I wanted it to be expressive, but without any extravagance. The album artwork was designed by Truth Revolution Records, and the cover and interior photos were taken by Jacek Czarniecki.
A lot has happened to you over the past year since the last Festival at the Polish-Slavic Center. And not only because of the album.
Yes, I know what you mean. Two months ago I received the Grammy ’25 award for composing and recording backing vocals for the song “Polvora De Ayer” by the famous rapper Residente, which appeared on the album “Las Letras Ya No Importan”. The album received a Grammy for best album in the “Musica Urbana” category. I am very happy about this success. It is a new thing, so not everything has sunk in yet. However, I realize that for many artists, receiving this award is a lifelong dream. The last year has also seen a much larger number of concerts. I performed with my Margo’s Ensemble, among others, at the Jazz nad Nilem event in Kolbuszowa in Poland, and I also gave concerts in Italy.
You are a person who has linked your life with music since early childhood.
That’s true. Apparently, when I was only a few months old, I was singing on the way to nursery. I knew from childhood what I would eventually do with my life, even though there was no musical tradition in our home. At one point, I actually forced my parents to enroll me in a music school. I finished primary music school in my hometown of Jarosław, and then I went to the vocal department of a secondary music school in Rzeszów. The next important stage was my studies in Poznań, where my teacher was the amazing professor Jadwiga Gałęska – Tritt. Working with this teacher developed me a lot vocally, opened me up and really prepared me for later stage performances.
For many years, however, you developed exclusively in the classical direction.
Yes. Both in high school and later, I was mainly involved in opera music, giving concerts almost every month. I performed solo or with choirs. I sang, for example, Feliks Nowowiejski’s Missa pro Pace at the National Philharmonic. I also recorded a lot. Among other things, solo parts for an album with the famous German soprano Ingrid Kremling, who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. I was also involved in the opera choir in Poznań, where we performed Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov in Luxembourg. Numerous concerts certainly gave me a lot of stage experience and developed my vocal skills, but I always subconsciously felt that classical and opera music were not exactly what I wanted to do in life.
And then jazz appeared. However, it did not happen by itself.
I needed an impulse for this. The breakthrough was the biography of Miles Davis, which fell into my hands quite by accident. After reading it, I began to absorb jazz, breathe it, and eventually sing it. I could say that my whole brain has somehow switched to a different track, to jazz. This is of course an oversimplification, because it took me years to get to where I am now. However, jazz has allowed me to go beyond the patterns I have been stuck in so far when dealing with classical music. It has allowed me to be myself and improvise, which is more in line with my character and temperament. I felt the freedom to create, which fortunately has accompanied me to this day.
This feeling has also ultimately led you to New York.
Exactly. I made the decision quite quickly that I wanted to sing jazz in America, where it was born. When I went to the US consulate in Krakow for a visa and was asked why I was leaving, I said that I was going to visit jazz clubs. So the consul asked what jazz saxophonist I knew. I answered that it was John Coltrane, but my favourite jazz musician is the creator of cool jazz, trumpeter Miles Davis. After such an answer, I got a visa immediately and in April 2002 I found myself in New York.
In the States, however, you didn’t immediately take up jazz. You ended up in the opera again, and Polonia recognized you as a talented organist.
First, I had to take care of my own living. When I came to the States, I had only $200 in my pocket and no one close to me there. Before I made contacts in the opera world, a Polish friend told me that the St. Joseph’s parish in Hackensack was looking for an organist. I had never played the organ, but the piano was always my second instrument, so I decided to try. I was accepted, and that’s how my adventure with playing in churches began. Later, I played at Catherine of Alexandria in Brooklyn, at St. Aloysius in Ridgewood, at St. Stanislaus Kostka in Greenpoint, and finally I ended up at St. Rose of Lima in Lower Brooklyn. At the same time, I returned to opera singing, because I already knew this music well. Thanks to that, I had the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Space. I sang in operas such as Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Wagner’s Die Walküre. However, I thought about jazz all the time. After all, that’s why I came to New York, to sing jazz. That was in my heart, and nothing else was as important.
When did this opportunity arise?
Despite my connections with opera, I was constantly going to jazz clubs and met many jazz musicians. One of the most important figures for me was the pianist and composer Dario Boente, winner of the Latin Grammy. Dario started teaching me typical jazz playing. In 2012, I moved into a building in East Harlem, where many great musicians reside. That also helped me a lot. I started taking vocal lessons with Theo Blackmann, an excellent jazz vocalist and a recognized teacher at the Manhattan School of Music. During this time, I also regularly took part in Jim Caruso’s Cast Party, jam sessions organized every Monday at the legendary Birdland club, where I soon started performing as a vocalist. At some point, the opportunity arose to perform live in clubs and restaurants. This made me start looking for musicians to work with. And that’s how my band Margo’s Ensemble was eventually created. I play most often in this group, but I also perform in trios and duets. And it is one of these duets that I will present during the Centrum Festival.
Good luck at the Festival and thank you for the interview.
Interviewed by Marcin Żurawicz.