Why is it worth planning a vacation at the Polish seaside in July? Not because there is a great chance of warm seawater or hot weather, but because Polish and world jazz stars gather there then. I am referring to the Ladies’ Jazz Festival, which lasted from July 15 to 25 this year. Together we celebrated its 20th anniversary with a beautiful view of the Baltic Sea.
Kashubian Philharmonic in Wejherowo
The twentieth-anniversary edition of the Ladies’ Jazz Festival began with performances at the Kashubian Philharmonic in Wejherowo. The honor of opening this important anniversary edition was given to Paula Morelenbaum, Jaques Morelenbaum and Fred Martins. Paula is one of the most important contemporary Brazilian vocalists, who has performed on the most important stages in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York. Her husband Jaques collaborated as an arranger with Jobim, among others, on the Grammy-winning album “Antonio Brasileiro”, as a cellist he participated in Sting’s concert “All this time” and in the recording of the album “Piazzollando” in honor of A. Piazzolla. In turn, the third participant of their project is Fred Martin, a Brazilian guitarist, vocalist and composer. He likes to cross genres and combine traditional Brazilian samba or bossa nova with fado, jazz, blues, flamenco, etc. The artists joined forces after a successful concert in Almada, Portugal last year and will go on tour in 2024. On the Ladies’ Jazz stage, they presented the audience with the greatest hits of the iconic Brazilian music – bossa nova.
A day later, on July 16, the same stage was graced by a Polish independent artist, author, composer, and producer. Edyta Bartosiewicz offered her listeners a journey back 30 years, to the beginning of her musical career. A year ago, on the 30th anniversary of her solo debut, she decided to return to the convention in which she began, i.e. SoloAct. It is a love triangle between the artist, her acoustic guitar, and the audience. Edyta claims that it is an act of the greatest sincerity and closeness with the audience.
Grand Prix 2024
At the moment we are moving to Gdynia, a city founded in the interwar period, but currently the July center of women’s jazz. On July 16-17, the stage of the Gdynia Culture Center hosted participants of the annual Grand Prix competition as part of the Ladies’ Jazz Festival. The first artist to perform at this year’s Ladies’ Jazz Festival at the Culture Consulate was Kasia Schmidt-Przeździecka. She is a young Polish bassist and composer. Later that day, the beautiful voice of a vocalist and theater actress of Polish-Vietnamese origin – Anna Nguyen – resounded from the stage. On Tuesday evening, Joanna Wojtkiewicz presented her talent, who, as it turned out later, was the winner of the 2024 Grand Prix. The last performance of the competition was prepared by Marta Goluch, a jazz journalist, poet, songwriter and vocalist with a red kazoo in her hand.
Great Women in the Jazz Manner and Take 6 at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia
The largest number of artists has performed at the Musical Theatre in Gdynia. The first to present their repertoire was one of the most original Polish bands – Mikromusic. Their title may confuse someone because their work is not micro at all, but mega-great. They describe their genre as avant-pop or art-pop. Their inspirations are Slavic folk, jazz, rock, and electronics. From the Ladies’ Jazz Festival stage, they presented their cult songs in jazz style, to stay in the convention of a jazz festival. Together with the audience, they sang, among others: “Lato 1996”, “Tak mi się nie chce”, “Piękny Chłop” and “Na krzywy ryj”, which say about taking everything from life.
Their latest single released in 2024, “Jestem Rzeką”, dedicated to the Polish Odra, deserves special attention. Natalia Grosiak (Mikromusic vocalist) shared the story of writing this song from the stage. Robert Rient is fighting for the Odra to be granted the status of a legal person, to stop treating it as a resource, and to be given proper protection. Even before the great disaster on the Odra, Robert asked Natalia to write a song about this river.
Later on July 18, Urszula Dudziak and Grażyna Auguścik performed with the Grzech Piotrowski Band. The Polish women who conquered the Mont Everest of Jazz dedicated their joint concert to releasing the vinyl version of the album “To i Hola”. Ula Dudziak admitted that twenty years ago, when they recorded these songs, she did not think that they would still be alive, much less sing the songs on the stage of the Ladies’ Jazz Festival. After their performance, there was a chance to buy their albums and get them signed, as well as a short chat and a photo with the idols. More in the interview with Urszula Dudziak.
Before the performance of Urszula Dudziak and Grażyna Auguścik, Magda Kuraś QUINTET – Grand Prix 2024 played as support. During this year’s edition, the young vocalist presented her own material. Although she moves in genres more around jazz, the main musical foundations of her work are jazz and folk. The power of her voice certainly enchanted the audience and increased the number of her fans.
It’s hard to imagine the anniversary edition of the Ladies’ Jazz Festival without Stacey Kent, who is probably the most famous American jazz vocalist in Poland. She loves Poland immensely and the feeling is mutual and she always comes here willingly.
Kaya was an interesting guest at this year’s edition. She prepared a special program called “Jazzayah” for this occasion. The Polish vocalist is known for hits such as: “Po co”, “Supermenka”, “Testosteron”, “Prawy do lewego”, “Ramię w ramie” or the recent single for the film “Chłopi” – “Jesień-Tańcuj”. At the Ladies’ Jazz Festival she presented herself in a completely different version. Her fans could hear these songs rearranged in a jazz manner for the first time. It must be admitted that it was a very interesting experience. As she laughed, it is something new for her, but I guess she is already in that so-called jazz age.
July 20th was quite a contrast day because firstly the well-known Fabia Rebordao presented her repertoire. She is a Portuguese vocalist with a beautiful voice and charisma, and at the same time a polyglot, which she also wanted to encourage the audience of the Ladies’ Jazz Festival to do. Her performance of the Niemens hit Pod Papugami still arouses admiration, just like it did 6 years ago. The world star of the fado scene does not limit herself to one genre. She is inspired by the Cape Verdean morna, Brazilian bossa, blues and jazz.
On the other hand, Julia Fordham appeared on stage later in the evening. This British-American vocalist gave her first performance in Poland. She is an artist with a very long experience. She began her musical career at the age of 14, singing her songs in clubs on the south coast of England. She has 19 of her albums to her credit, in addition 2 in the star group Woman to Woman, co-created with Beverly Craven and Judie Tzuke. She owes her success primarily to catchy songs and the beautiful power of her voice. The juicy contralto, which she commands with almost operatic mastery, is one of the most captivating voices you can hear in popular music – wrote the New York Times. Before she arrived in Poland, she released a new single “My Old Table”, and her new album is to appear in the autumn. You will learn more about it from the interview with Julia Fordham.
The culmination of these beautiful July days filled with jazz music was the concert of Daria Zawiałow and her stage friend Natalia Szroeder at the Polsat Plus Arena in Gdynia.
Kateryna Shmorgun
The most interesting events in Poland on summer. Concerts, Festivals and outdoor events. Jazz, Rock, Reagge, Rap, Hip-Hop, Beer and traditional polish food.
