Czesław Niemen
Czesław Niemen
Czesław Niemen | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki |
Born | (1939-02-16)February 16, 1939 in Stare Wasiliszki, Nowogródek Voivodeship, Poland (now Belarus) |
Died | January 17, 2004(2004-01-17)(aged 64) in Warsaw, Poland |
Genres |
|
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet |
Instruments | Multi-instrumentalist (mostly electronic instruments and keyboards) |
Years active | 1967–2001 |
Associated acts | Niebiesko-Czarni, Andrzej Kurylewicz |
Website | Niemen at polishmusic.ca [37] |
Czesław Niemen (Polish pronunciation: [t͡ʂɛswaf ɲemɛn]; February 16, 1939 – January 17, 2004), born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki, and often credited as just Niemen, was one of the most important and original Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the last quarter-century,[1] singing mainly in Polish.
Czesław Niemen | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki |
Born | (1939-02-16)February 16, 1939 in Stare Wasiliszki, Nowogródek Voivodeship, Poland (now Belarus) |
Died | January 17, 2004(2004-01-17)(aged 64) in Warsaw, Poland |
Genres |
|
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet |
Instruments | Multi-instrumentalist (mostly electronic instruments and keyboards) |
Years active | 1967–2001 |
Associated acts | Niebiesko-Czarni, Andrzej Kurylewicz |
Website | Niemen at polishmusic.ca [37] |
Biography
Early life
Niemen was born in Stare Wasiliszki in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic (now in the Grodno Region of Belarus). Czesław Niemen belonged to a community of Poles, living outside the eastern borders of contemporary Poland, on the eastern lands of the historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (called 'Kresy' - 'borderlands' - in Polish).
In the dawn of World War II these ethnic Polish-Belarusian lands were annexed by the Soviet Union and became a part of the Belorussian SSR, which was affirmed by Europe's post-war reorganization performed during the Yalta Conference.
1960s
He made his debut in the early 1960s, singing Polish rock and soul music. He possessed an unusually wide voice range and equally rich intonation. He was also an ardent composer and a keyboard player.
In 1964 at Congress Hall, Warsaw, Niemen, together with his group, played as a support act to Marlene Dietrich during her concert. She heard his song "Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz" ("Do you still remember me?") there. She enjoyed it so much that she soon wrote her own lyrics for the song and recorded "Mutter, Hast du Mir Vergeben" ("Mother, have you forgiven me?").[2]
Soon after his first successful concerts in France, he started to use the pseudonym Niemen instead of his real name, gaining wider notoriety in Poland and making it easier to pronounce by foreigners (Niemen is a Polish pronunciation of the Neman River, which flows in close proximity to his place of birth). His 1967 song "Dziwny jest ten świat" (Strange Is This World) is commonly acknowledged to be the most important Polish protest song of that era; an English version was also recorded in 1972. The song was influenced by the American blues tradition. [1] [38] He was one of the first Polish performers to wear long hair and colourful clothes and introduced the style of psychedelia to communist Poland, which displeased officials.
The first three LP album's Niemen recorded with his band "Akwarele" (Watercolours). Subsequently, he recorded with his other new bands: "Enigmatic", "Grupa Niemen" and "Aerolit". In 1969 he changed his musical style to progressive rock while recording the monumental album Enigmatic. That album's most notable song was "Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod" (A Mournful Rhapsody in Memory of Józef Bem), based on the 19th century poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The rest of *Enigmatic'*s songs were also in sung poetry form. Niemen played the Hammond organ on his records, later moving to the mellotron and the Moog synthesizer.
1970s
In the early 1970s, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label, two of them (and three more in Poland) with the Silesian band SBB. With SBB Niemen performed at the Rock & Jazz Now! opening show for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich sharing the stage with Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin and Charles Mingus and subsequently toured with Jack Bruce's band. In 1972 he also performed a song he wrote in Andrzej Wajda's film Wesele (The Wedding). In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and electronic music, recording the album Katharsis.
Later years and death
Niemen went on to compose film soundtracks and theater music, and in the 1990s he showed interest in art, painting and computer graphics.
He died of cancer on January 17, 2004 in Warsaw. His remains were cremated and placed in a columbarium niche on Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw on January 30, 2004.
Awards and recognitions
Niemen won the Sopot International Song Festival in 1979.
Remembrance
Niemen's support bands
Niemen cooperated with the following bands; some of them were support musicians, while others were independent bands: "Akwarele" ("Watercolours") (1967–1969),[5] "I Niemen" ("And Niemen") (1969–1970), also under the name "Niemen Enigmatic"), "Grupa Niemen" (made of the members of Silesian Blues Band), Niebiesko-Czarni, "Aerolit", and female vocal band Alibabki. "Aerolit" accompanied Czesław Niemen in 1974–1978. Initially it was formed from young musicians of the rock band Krzak: Jacek Gazda, Jan Błędowski, Maciej Radziejewski, Piotr Dziemski.[6] The word means "aerolite" in Polish.
Discography
Studio albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POL [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][9][15][16] | |||||||||
Dziwny jest ten świat |
| 31 |
| ||||||
Sukces |
| — | |||||||
Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz? |
| 35 | |||||||
Enigmatic |
| 28 |
| ||||||
Niemen |
| — | |||||||
Niemen Vol. 1 |
| — | |||||||
Niemen Vol. 2 |
| — | |||||||
Niemen Aerolit |
| — | |||||||
Katharsis |
| — | |||||||
Idée Fixe |
| — | |||||||
Postscriptum |
| — | |||||||
Przeprowadzka |
| — | |||||||
Terra Deflorata |
| — | |||||||
spodchmurykapelusza |
| 22 | |||||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
English-language albums
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Strange Is This World |
|
Ode to Venus |
|
Mourner's Rhapsody |
|
Russian-language albums
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Russische Lieder |
|
Live albums
Compilation albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
POL [7] | |||||||||
The Best of Niemen |
| — | |||||||
Gwiazdy mocnego uderzenia: Czesław Niemen |
| — | |||||||
Sen o Warszawie |
| 37 | |||||||
Czas jak rzeka: Złota kolekcja |
| 1 |
| ||||||
od początku I |
| 7 |
| ||||||
od początku II |
| 14 | |||||||
Spiżowy krzyk |
| 20 | |||||||
Nasz Niemen |
| — |
| ||||||
Pamiętam ten dzień |
| 4 |
| ||||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Further reading
Roman Radoszewski, Czesław Niemen: Kiedy się dziwić przestanę. Monografia artystyczna. Iskry, 2004. ISBN 83-207-1770-1.
Marek Gaszyński, Czas jak rzeka. Prószyński i S-ka, 2004. ISBN 83-7337-849-9.
Dariusz Michalski, Niemen o sobie. Warszawa: Twój Styl, 2005. ISBN 83-7163-568-0.
Tadeusz Skliński, Niemen: dyskografia, fakty, twórczość. Nemunas, 2006. ISBN 83-9230-920-0.
Dariusz Michalski, Czesław Niemen: Czy go jeszcze pamiętasz?. Warszawa: MG, 2009. ISBN 978-83-61297-76-5.
Jan Edward Czachor, Czesław Niemen w Świebodzinie. Stowarzyszenie Pamięci Czesława Niemena w Świebodzinie, 2010.