Juz za pare dni premiera najnowszej plyty Krzysztofa Scieranskiego "Directions"For years I’ve been interested in rhythms and ways of producing it. For example, the same rhythm in the same beat played by Africans is different from the one played by Brazilians. I like salsa very much (mongo santamaria, Ray Baretto, Tito Puente, Michael Camillo etc.) Whenever the occasion rises I go to African concerts (e.g. Zap Mama, Fefe) In my compositions I use African and south African virtues, connect them with traditional, even classical, one could say, harmony. Differently than Wojtek Karolak, who claims he is an American jazz and rhythm n..blues musician, born by mistake in Middle Europe, I am Latin American residing the same geographic area. I dream about going for Brazil for some time to listen and play with local musicians.
1976-80
I used to be bass player of Cracow band Laboratorium. We played hundreds of concerts in Poland and abroad Except for the usual tour we played at festivals in Zurich [that[s when I heard John Scoffield live for the first time in my life], Linz, Praue, Budapest & Berlin. Together with Laboratorium I recorded five ’vinyls’.1980
Zbyszek Namys--owski invited me to his new band called Air Condition. We played lots of concerts and spent lots of time in ...car. W got to the festival in Cork, Ireland, Kendall, Great Britain, also visited Sweden, Austria, Germany [NRD, mainly RFN]. We played at Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw as well. We also were to the greatest European jazz festival North Sea Jazz Festival, in 1981, I guess. That’s where I’ve heard all the possible artist I had only known from long-plays [in four days about 140 jazz bands performed there]. If you want to listen to each of them for at least a minute, you have to use a special timetable: 15:30 Al Jarreau, 15:45 Zawinul, 15:57 Chick Corea; 16:12 Hencock, 16:17 Lee Ritenaur, 16:19 Bob James. 16:20 ...you can go mad!1981
A few days before martial law I gave my first concert in Rura [Pipe], Wroc--aw with my new band String Connection. The second one was supposed to be given a couple of days later, but never actually was, cause the martial law has started. With this band I cooperated from 1982 to 1986. We took part in many festivals, to mention in Montreal. In 1983 we won the first place in young jazz bands competition in Hoclart, Belgium, the price was the exact money we needed to pay for our journey back home. We even got to California, where, as the only ones from Europe, we played in Reno, Nevada as String Connection Trio [K. D--bski, K. Przyby--owicz and me] next to the greatest American stars. We broke the record of ’the most disinterested band’. We traveled about 1600 kilometers [one way] to play for about an hour at the festival. Fortunately on our way back Micha-- Urbaniak organized us a concert in NY, so we had a pleasure to play a concert together with his band in the famous Lone in NY. Together with String Connection I recorded five long-plays. Two tours in Soviet Union... how to put it in one word... rather impossible... a chain of unusual experiences.1982
My first solo concert on bass was in 1982 at Solo Duo Trio Festival in Rotunda, Kraków. In 1983 I recorded my first authorial disc Bass Line. On this one you can hear: Jerzy Piotrowski dr. [ex. SBB], Marek Wilczy--ski perc., Pawe-- --ciera--ski guit.. And me on bass. This record and the following [Krzysztof --ciera--ski 1984] include only my compositions.1985
In 1985 I settled my own band – a trio with my brother Pawe-- [guitar] and Marek Surzyn, who played the drums [well, he still plays but at that time with me]. We recorded only one disc – Confusion but visited many beautiful places, to mention: Nancy, France [a city settled by Stanis--aw Leszczy--ski - a Polish king]. We also played in Germany and had a couple of great tours in Hungary....
The beginning of the 80s was a time of my cooperation with Wolfgang Thierfeld – plays drums, sometimes drums and keyboard simultaneously [Wolfgang Thierfeld: WolfStep AnimalField]. We visited tens of German cities and villages, also Belgium and even played a couple of concerts in Poland. Wolfgang invited me to participate in recording of his authorial disc Thierfeldt where I play in a couple of pieces.1987
In 1987 at Baross Utca [Street] in Attila Maleck’s place in Hungary I recorded my next authorial disc The King Is In Town [still a vinyl].1989
In 1989 Janek Pluta [playing drums, known from a band called Kombi] replaced Marek Surzyn. We recorded quite a lot of music but only one long play saw the light of day, it was celled No Radio and was the first material released on a compact disc. With Janek w traveled around Poland as well but most usually played abroad [Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany]. We visited JakJazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia three times. The last performance was enlarged with Janek Skowron ..boards and Marek Ba--ata [vocal]. On organisers’ request we prepare our version of famous and popular Indonesian song ’Kicir Kicir a lagunia la Jakarta’. The public went mad and we got a standing ovation, of course. The song ’Where Is That Girl’ from ’No Radio’ kept on the list.1993
In 1993 I recorded my next authorial album ’Far Away From Home’ with polish best musicians: Tomasz Sta--sko [trumpet] Janusz Skowron [keyboard], Zbigniew Namys--owski [sax], Marek Ba--ata [voc.] Jacek Kochan [drums] and Pawe-- --ciera--ski [guitar].1995
W 1995 together with Benek and Jose we settled a band called Music Painters. The first disc was recorded during the first two concerts in Rotunda club in Cracow. It was unbelievably hot there: the wires jumped out off guitars, the plugs from sockets, girls fell off armchairs? About 6 a.m. Benek fell asleep on a windowsill with the window wide open while listening to what we’ve recorded on his walkman. With our trio we played about 300 concerts in Poland but also visited ’Atakafa’ [Arabian for culture] Festival in Lille, France, where we’ve hear unbelievable artists from several different nooks of the world [street band from Bengal, Aborigines humming on pipes, Japanese singer, who was accompanying himself on accordion and singing as the greatest opera diva ;-), girls [in their fifties] from Morocco plated, danced and sang the truth about Africa – I wish I, and the others, had the sense of rhythm those richly tattooed ladies represented. In 1996 the next album called ’Another Story’ was released. We still play it and feel good about it, hawk!1999
’Flying Over’ from 1999 is my last authorial disc....
For the last few years I’ve been cooperating with Bernard Maseli playing on electric vibraphone KAT Midi Controller. It’s thanks to this man that I can travel hundreds of kilometres. The way he plays is so inspiring that when we split and I have to play on my own, I feel helpless, plain and hollow. Benek is a great improviser, exceptionally sensitive to the timbre. He feels the rhythm like the Africans do. His solos are always enthusiastically welcomed. I love playing with this guy!...
About 3 years ago a new group settled: Zbigniew Jakubek [keyboard], Marek Napiórkowski [guitar], Micha-- D--brówka [drums] and me on bass We play from time to time, recorded a disc ’live’ in Opole Radio and will master it soon. We played concerts in Hungary and Germany.
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