This is the first Grammy Award for a Polish jazzman in the history of these prestigious music awards.
After its Polish premiere in November 2012, the album was published in the United States by Summit Records in August 2013 and winning this year’s Grammy Award.
“Night in Calisia” made its debut on 19 June 2010 in Kalisz. It was commissioned by Adam Klocek, director of the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra, to celebrate the 1850th anniversary of the city. The idea behind the project was to make it closely connected with the history of Kalisz but also a huge music event, which will promote the city and the Orchestra. The American edition of the record includes information about Kalisz in Polish. As it turns out, the project has become a great success!
Włodek Pawlik is an exceptional pianist and composer, a graduate from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in the piano class of Barbara Hesse-Bukowska (1984). In 1990 he graduated from piano studies at the Jazz Department of the Hochschule fur Musik in Hamburg. In 2007 he received the doctor’s degree at his home university where he gives lectures on improvisation. He has made more than 20 original records, various soundtracks and contemporary compositions.
He is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including Grand Prix in the International Jazz Competition in Dunkirk (France) and the second award in the International Jazz Compositions Competition in Monaco. He was often awarded with the “Jazz Musician of the Year” title given by the legendary Akwarium Jazz Club in Warsaw. He performs at the biggest and most prestigious jazz festivals, such as North Sea Jazz Festival (The Hague 1998) and European Jazz Festival (Athens 2006), as well as classical music festivals (e.g.: Stabat Mater mystery play at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival 2003), making an unforgettable impression on the audience and receiving enthusiastic reviews on every continent. The festival magazine Who is who at North Jazz Festival 1998 gave him a commendable name of “Vladimir Horowitz of Jazz”. His concerts and records are also highly recognised among many international opinion-forming media. The Age magazine announced the artist’s concert tour around Australia the biggest music event in 2002, and the American jazz magazine Down Beat called the “Turtles” album, made with a famous trumpeter Randy Brecker, “outstanding”.
Włodek Pawlik also composes film and theatre music, radio plays, symphonies, vocal masterpieces and music settings for contemporary ballet. He is the author of music for the award-winning films by Dorota Kędzierzawska, Wrony and Pora umierać, Rewers directed by Borys Lankosz (Złote Lwy Award at the 34th Gdynia Film Festival) as well as such international film productions as Nightwatching by Peter Greenaway and Within the whirlwind by Marleen Gorris (the 1996 Oscar’s winner for Antonia’s Line). The music he made for the “Novecento” play on the Polish Radio gave him the award at the 9th Dwa Teatry – Sopot 2009 Festival.
In 2008, together with his trio and the legendary trumpeter Randy Brecker (Grammy Award 2009 laureate), the artist composed and recorded a jazz suite called “Tykocin”, which music critics from Rzeczypospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza chose “the jazz record of the year”. The Summit Records produced the international rendition of the album called “Nostalgic Journey – Tykocin Jazz Suite”, which was available in the USA, Japan, South Korea and European countries (Germany, Italy, France and Spain). In August 2013 “Night in Calisia” made with the Kalisz Philharmonic Orchestra and Randy Brecker was published on the American market.
Photo © Mirosław Janus