Siergiej Wowkotrub - musician originally from Ukraine, permanently residing in Poland since 1992. He is a graduate of the prestigious P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Kiev in the violin class of Prof. A. I. Bazhenov. Despite starting doctoral studies in Kiev in the early 1990s, he decided to go to Poland. At the invitation of the then-director of the Czestochowa Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Kosek, he took up the position of violinist and quite quickly was promoted to first violin of the orchestra. Associated with Czestochowa professionally and privately, he found a second homeland in Poland. Parallel to his symphonic career, the musician successfully developed his love of syncopated music. While still at the conservatory, he succumbed to a fascination with traditional jazz, listening to Leonid Utiósov's recordings, then discovered Stéphane Grappelli and the entire universe of gypsy swing violin. As a jazzman, he honed his skills with Maciej Strzelczyk and Wojciech Kaminski, and later with Tim Kliphuis.
The first lineup of the Siergiej Wowkotrub Trio (SWT) was formed in 2001 in Czestochowa, where musicians playing traditional jazz were extremely active. In 2007, SWT's first album, titled "Happy Times," was released, on which Wowkotrub, along with friends from the band: Andrzej Nowicki and Daniel Pomorski, explored the swing of the 1920s and 1930s. In his interpretations of standards and his own compositions, he sought to combine the beauty of the natural, human-like, pure sound of the violin with the unique atmosphere of the Golden Era of Swing. The 1920s - 1930s are constantly the counterpoint of his musical fascinations and performance technique. The emotions of gypsy manouche swing, combined with a delicate East Slavic touch, are strongly felt in his virtuoso playing. His extensive repertoire consists of gypsy swing standards inspired by the works of Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli.
Sergei is a laureate of the "Debut in Traditional Jazz" (Warsaw, 2005) and "Golden Tarka" (OJM, Ilawa 2006) competitions. He was awarded the Bronze Medal "For Long Service" by the President of the Republic of Poland (Warsaw, 30.08.2010) and the Honorary Badge "Meritorious for Polish Culture" by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (Warsaw, 24.09.2014). He has collaborated with the "Jazz Band Ball Orchestra" (Cracow), "Wojtek Kaminski's Swing Workshop" (Warsaw), "Five O'Clock Orchestra" (Czestochowa), "Hot D'Jazz Trio" (Cracow), Joscho Stephan (Mönchengladbach), Tim Kliphuis (Hilversum), Vano Bamberger (Franfurkt). He has performed at home and abroad (Germany, Hollandji, France, Belgium, Slovakia and Hungary). He participated in the recordings of the albums "Bix & Henry" (2006), "New Orleans Suite" (2007), released the album of his trio "Happy Times" (2007). as well as the SWGSQ quartet "Joseph, Joseph" (2013).
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Jacek Serczyk - classical and jazz guitarist. He has worked with such artists as Roby Lakatos, Nigel Kennedy, Bogumiła Gizbert-Studnicka, Francesco Buzzurro, Mieczysław Święcicki, Vitalij Petraniuk, Marek Sosnicki, among others. He has performed at such festivals as the River Boat Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazz Fest, Hallevik Jazz Fest, Zlota Tarka, Verdener Jazz und Blues Tage, Geyer Music Factory, Manu Summer Jazz Days, Festival Baroque d'Auvergne. He has given concerts in France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Greece, England and Austria, where his Hot D'jazz Trio band participated in the promotion of the Euro 2012 Football Championship at the Baden Casino. This lineup also performed several times at the Austria Center building in a concert to benefit UNICEF. He has recorded such albums as Yulara Future Tribe, Ballads of Bulat Okudzhava, Hot D'jazz, Revolver Out of Time, Django Tango Project, Ensemble Giuliani Baroque. He has also recorded for the show Rуżowe Konie - Aldona Jankowska's Pocket Revue. By day, he is a leader in the Hot D'jazz Trio ensemble.
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Jakub Mietła - a graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice, and currently a lecturer in the accordion class at the Cracow School of Jazz and Popular Music. Winner of many international competitions and festivals. Recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for 2001/2002 and the Hugo Kollataj Foundation. Since 2000, he has been a member of the accordion trio "Ars Harmonica", with which he performs throughout Europe. He was also a co-founder and member of the smooth-jazz band "Button Hackers", with which he recorded the album "This is my angel"(Polish radio 2005). As a soloist, in addition to concerts in the country, he has given concerts in Germany, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the USA. He has collaborated with many artists of the Polish music scene, including. H.Młynkowa, J.Słowińska, R.Przemyk, Andrzej Sikorowski,Jacek Wójcicki, K.Kilijański, Kuba Badach, B.Maseli, J.Królik. Since 2006 he has also been a member of Que Passa band (latin jazz, flamenco fusion) with which he recorded the album "For you". Since 2011 he is also a member of the band "Sokol Orchestra"(albums Slavic soul, Wariacka miłość). He has participated in projects of Polish and foreign world music groups: Jazzmates, Tolhaje (Folk phonogram of the year 2001), The Globetrotters (Both Sides), Kreszendo (Here and Now), THE SHIN (Black Sea Fire, Open World Project), Amine&Hamza (Tunifunk, Fertile Paradoxes, Halina Mlynkowa (Etnoteka), Karima
Nayt, The artist has also collaborated with film music composers including Zbigniew Preisner, Bartosz Chajdecki, Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, Lukasz Targosz. A respected session musician. Numerous recordings for radio, theater and television.
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Tomasz Kobiela - jazz guitarist and guitar teacher. He has worked with such bands as Coach, Old Metropolitan Band, Vspeed. With the Coach group, he performed at all major country events in the country, including the Country Picnic in Mragowo, Trucker Country in Cracow, Country in the Bieszczady in Lesko, Country Convoy in Ostroleka and CROCK in Ustrzyki Dolne. He has often toured abroad, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Lithuania, Latvia and Italy. He could be seen and heard on several TV programs, such as Scena Country (TVP Polonia), Country Bar (TV Katowice), Country is Laughing (TVP). He is a member of the Hot D'jazz Trio, with which he has performed at such festivals as the River Boat Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazz Fest, Hallevik Jazz Fest, Zlota Tarka, Verdener Jazz und Blues Tage, Geyer Music Factory, Manu Summer Jazz Days. He collaborates with Magda Bożyk. Formed a guitar duo with Ryszard Styla.
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Piotr Górka - double bassist, graduate of the Institute of Jazz at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, currently lecturer at the Institute of Music at the University of Silesia. He collaborates with outstanding personalities of the Polish music scene, including Elżbieta Adamiak, Lora Szafran, Andrzej Poniedzielski, Jerzy Filar, as well as with many well-known bands, such as: "Sergey Vovkotrb Gypsy Swing Quartet", "Matkowska Sisters", "Naked Mind". As a double bass player, he is also associated with the Powszechny Theater in Lodz, the Zagłębie Theater in Sosnowiec and the KOREZ Theater in Katowice. He has performed at prestigious festivals in many countries, including Canada, Argentina, China, Germany, France and Spain. In addition to his musical activities, he is also involved in the management of Polish stage stars.
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Marek Piątek - musician-guitarist, arranger, composer, educator. He continues a multi-generational family tradition of professional musicians. He plays several varieties of guitar practicing various musical genres: jazz-including gypsy swing, bossa nova, classical music, tango, gypsy romance. He is a graduate of the Cracow Academy of Music in the classical guitar class, among others. He has won laurels at many national and international guitar competitions, from first-stage school through college. He made his mark on the professional music scene in 1990 when he won an award at the Jazz Juniors Festival by performing with his own band, Overtime, which performed original compositions. Since then, in addition to solo performances, he has collaborated with stars of the Polish stage, such as Maciej Malenczuk, Alosza Awdiejew, Grzegorz Turnau, Krzysztof Kiliański, Jacek Wójcicki, Piotr Rubik, Zbigniew Wodecki, touring extensively at home and abroad, recording dozens of albums (including the "Fryderyk" nominated album "Maleńczuk plays Młynarski"),. He has performed and recorded with personalities of the Polish jazz scene, such as Janusz Muniak, Bernard Maseli, Piotr Baron, Zbigniew Jakubek, Adam Kawończyk, Kajetan Galas and Jacek Ostaszewski with the legendary group Osjan. He leads his own bands, including the jazz quartet Just Blue . He has also worked for years with theater and film music composers, such as Zygmunt Konieczny, Abel Korzeniowski, Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz, Andrzej Zarycki, Piotr Dziubek and others. In the world of tango and the music of Astor Piazzola, Marek Piątek appeared in 2004, entering the Tango Bridge project with Waldemar Malicki and Trio Revirado. Since then, he has regularly collaborated with Wieslaw Prządka on the grounds of various bands, mainly WP Quinteto Tango Nuevo, with which they recorded the album "Los Pajaros Perdidos" together, as well as in the duo Tango Paris. In recent years, he has been intensively developing his professional activity in the field of gypsy jazz music, also known as jazz manouche, associated with the figure of Django Reinhardt.
Playing gypsy guitar, he permanently collaborates with several bands: Marek &Jacek Crazy Rhythm (with J.Serczyk), Hot 20 Strings or Konrad Ligas Gypsy Project. He has also performed with foreign musicians such as Romain Vuillemin, Giovanni Weiss, Pippi Diminte, Filippo Dall'Asta and Sebastien Kauffmann. He also promotes the genre in social media, running, among other things, the popular website Gypsy.guitar (Facebook). Marek Piątek has played more than 4,000 concerts in Poland, Europe and around the world. He took part in the recording of about 50 CDs and DVDs, including his own, mainly as a guitarist, but also as an arranger and co-producer . He has appeared in dozens of television and radio programs. He also cooperated with the Polish Radio Music Agency, in the coordination and preparation of record releases. Marek Piątek is also a composer of jazz pieces, songs, as well as the creator and producer of a series of publications with author's so-called "applied" music. Since 1991, he has also worked as a pedagogue in music schools of the first and second degree. He also conducts classes as part of his own "Little Guitar Academy."
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Konrad Ligas - accordionist. Graduated from the accordion class at the Academy of Music in Cracow in the class of Prof. Janusz Pater. Participant and winner of international and national accordion competitions, teacher of the accordion class at the First Grade Music School in Dobczyce. Actively active as a soloist and chamber musician in both classical, jazz and klezmer music. He has collaborated with Janusz Muniak, Wojciech Groborz, Karol White, Leopold Kozlowski, Roby Lakatos, Francesco Buzurro, among others. Member of such bands as Jascha Lieberman Trio, Tempero, Sokol Orkestar, Megitza, Alchemy Trio, Django Tango Project, Max Klezmer Band. He has premiered several compositions by Krakow composers, playing with a symphony orchestra, among others. He has given concerts in many well-known concert halls including: Krakow Philharmonic Hall, Radio Krakow, Słowacki Theater in Krakow, Pomeranian Philharmonic Hall in Bydgoszcz, W. Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw, Galicia Jewish Museum.
He worked with the Stefan Zeromski Theater in Kielce (co-author of music for the play "All Want to Live"), the Juliusz Slowacki Theater in Cracow, the Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Theater in Zakopane. He was one of the founders of the Nazzar Group, with which he won the 3rd Prize of Polish Radio Program 2 at the 11th Polish Radio Folk Music Competition "New Tradition" (Warsaw 2008). In 2018, he composed "Patriotic Jazz Suite" for accordion, piano, clarinet, string quartet, double bass and percussion on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's Independence. The composition was commissioned by the Association of Polish Chamber Musicians under the "Composer Orders" program funded by the Institute of Music and Dance. Fascinated by the figure of Bireli Lagrene, he became the originator and producer of the recording of Konrad Ligas' original album "Gypsy" maintained in the convention of jazz manouche. For this recording he invited some of the most outstanding jazz musicians in Poland. In 2019, he was invited by "Nat Studio" in Thailand to play a solo recital and a "Patriotic Jazz Suite" enriched with musicians from Thailand and China. The concert was held on November 17, 2019 at the Sudasiri Sobha Hall in Bangkok.