NOVI
New Original Vocal Instruments
Bossa Nova
Polish Jazz vol.13

Label: Polskie Nagrania - Muza , 1967/2004
Catalogue No: PNCD 913 (XL /SXL 0415)
Format: CD (24-bit re-mastered from original master tapes)

There is this epidemic of labeling, everybody labels everybody - seems some people can't sleep at night without having everything neatly classified. I don't give a damn if somebody says I sing church music, and somebody says it's military marches and somebody says it's nursery rhymes, and somebody else wonders if it's jazz. (...) I don't care what it's going to get called, I just want it to be good. (Bernard Kafka of the Novi Singers in: Jazz Forum 1/1971).

Tracks:

1. Brownie
2. Cichy wieczor (A calm evening)
3. Zolty slon (The yellow elephant)
4. Trzeba wracac (One must return)
5. Nastroje malych misiow (Teddy Bears' moods)
6. Dwa po dwa (Two times two)
7. Nastepny prosze (Next, please)
8. Pyzate sloneczniki (Chubby sunflowers)
9. Jak powrocic do tej chwili (How could we return to the past moment)
10. Mini dziewczyna (The mini girl)
11. Bariera uczuc (The barrier of feelings)
12. Gogo
13. Krol Salomon (King Salomon)
14. Tanczace orzechy (Dancing nuts)

Recorded:

June 1967, at Polskie Nagrania - Studio 12, Warsaw, Poland

Performed by:

Ewa Wanat - vocal
Bernard Kafka - vocal
Janusz Mych - vocal
Waldemar Parzynski - vocal
and
Andrzej Matyszkowicz - piano
Janusz Kozlowski - bass
Janusz Sidorenko - guitar
Jerzy Bartz - drums

About:

NOVI were the first to make a break-through in the tradition of Polish vocal groups, a tradition which goes back to the very popular singers in the thirties - The Dan Choir. It was then a great stride forward as Polish jazz vocalists had been lagging behind in comparison with our instrumental music. Elsewhere, in the world there was then consistent progress in this field. New groups were being formed - the phenomenal American Lambert-Hendricks-Ross Trio, the French Les Double Six group and many others. In modern jazz, human voices began playing the parts of instruments, giving rise to a new school of "instrumental" singing. This kind of singing calls for special qualifications. The performer must be simultaneously a vocalist, instrumentalist and jazzman capable of playing improvised parts. Now the NOVI band can do all these things. The members of the band are educated musicians who have graduated from the Warsaw Advanced Music School: Ewa Wanat - violinist; Janusz Mych - flutist; Waldemar Parzynski - sound supervisor and percussionist; their leader, Bernard Kawka - violinist. They are all real jazzmen.

Their name NOVI (the new ones) has a special meaning for them. It not only suggests something new, but is made up of the initials of the English words New Original Vocal Instruments. And this is so indeed. The NOVI use their voices like instruments. They can give the monosyllables of their vocalises any sound and articulation they wish. NOVI's biography is short and brilliant. In late 1964 a young graduate of the Warsaw Conservatory, Bernard Kawka, fascinated by the music of Bill Evans, whom he had met in Scandinavia, decided to devote himself to jazz. In the Conservatory he found others who shared his enthusiasm for this music. This led to the formation of the band. They considered that the best way of expressing their jazz ideas would be to use their own voices. At first they appeared only on the radio, becoming very popular with listeners. Then they took part in the annual international festival Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw in 1965 and since that time have been appearing at similar events both at home and abroad. They sang in Switzerland where they won first prize at a jazz festival, they appeared at Bled in Yugoslavia and in many other countries. They have co-operated with leading Polish jazz musicians: Andrzej Trzaskowski, Krzysztof Komeda, Adam Matyszkowicz and others.

The NOVI called their first record "Bossa-Nova". This should not be taken literally. It reflects only the general climate of the record on which the NOVI display the whole range of their possibilities. Only in some pieces is the theme introduced in the form of a bossa-nova and then followed by standard swing improvisations, big-band riffs or swing tutti.

The group is accompanied by instrumental sets ranging from double-bass with percussion, the full section, flute, vibraphone, to a group of string instruments. The band is made up of jazz musicians: Andrzej Matyszkowicz, piano; Janusz Kozlowski, double-bass, Janusz Sidorenko, guitar and Jerzy Bartz, percussion.

Jan Borkowski (original line notes from the album's back cover)