MAREK GRECHUTA & ANAWA - "MAREK GRECHUTA & ANAWA" (1970)

Marek Grechuta's debut album with backing band Anawa is one of the most important Polish albums of the Seventies.
Complex and beautiful folk pieces which mix strings in the 18th century style, cabaret-like piano marches, and jazzy double bass lines.
Most of these songs are familiar to the majority of Poles. My favourites are "W dzikie wino zaplątani", "Nie dokazuj", and "Piosenka".

Marek Grechuta – lead vocals
Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz – piano
Tadeusz Kożuch – violin
Zbigniew Wodecki – violin
Anna Wójtowicz – cello
Tadeusz Dziedzic – guitar

Producer: Zofia Gajewska

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MAREK GRECHUTA - "MAGIA OBŁOKÓW" (1974)

The second collaboration between singer-pianist Marek Grechuta and support band WIEM is another great album. 
"Godzina miłowania" is one of my favourite songs ever, a dynamic mix of progressive rock, jazz, funk, and poetry, with some devastating bass guitar parts, courtesy of a totally unknown player called Jan Adam Cichy.
The most popular song is "Świat w obłokach", with its baroque choral harmonies. 

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MAREK GRECHUTA - "DROGA ZA WIDNOKRES" (1972)

This is where Marek Grechuta started his collaboration with jazz-rock ensemble WIEM. Unexpectedly, the result is an easier album if compared to 1971's "Korowód": the songs are shorter and less timing is given to jam sessions and instrumental solos.

There are two main elements on this album. One is Grechuta's heartfelt voice, which declaims beautiful Polish poetry. The other is the double bass played by Paweł Jarzębski, whose articulated lines are very loud in the mix and dominate the arrangements. The rest is occupied by gently played guitars, some pristine piano parts, and lots of percussion.

Try to imagine a less-baroque Polish version of Gainsbourg's "Histoire de Melody Nelson", a part spoken album where the melodies are determined by the richness of the instrumental architectures.

It is not among Grechuta's most popular works, but it is celebrated by critics as one of his bests, and so it is.

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MAREK GRECHUTA & ANAWA - "KOROWÓD" (1971)

This is Marek Grechuta's second album, and his last collaboration with the legendary jazz-folk ensemble Anawa, led by piano player Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz.

"Korowód" is universally praised as one of the great masterpieces of Polish music and it's not hard to understand why: where else in the world can you find anything that sound like this?
Indeed, this is an incredibly well-recorded melting pot of poetry, catchy pop melodies, progressive rock structures, baroque orchestrations, dissonant jazz embellishments, and folk music elements. Some songs strongly predate the fusion between rock and ethnic music.

Funny how at the time "Korowód" didn't figure among Poland's ten best selling albums of 1971, given that today it is way more popular than any other album of that year, and the lead single "Dni, których nie znamy" is probably the most famous Polish song of the Seventies. 

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