NOVI SINGERS
Novi Sing Chopin

Label: Polskie Nagrania - Muza, 1971/2010
Catalogue No: PNCD 1295
Format: CD

Tracks:

1. Prelude in E minor Op.28 No.4
2. Prelude in D flat major Op.28 No.15
3. Mazurka in F major Op.68 No.4
4. Grande Valse Brilante Op.34 No.2
5. Scherzo in B minor Op.20
6. Mazurka in A minor Op.17 No.4
7. Prelude in F sharp major Op.28 No.14
8. Mazurka in E minor Op.41 No.2
9. Prelude in B major Op.28 No.6
10. Waltz in D flat major Op.64 No.1
11. Ballad in F minor Op.52
12. The Fool on the Hill

All music by Frederic Chopin except #12 by Lennon/McCartney

Recorded:

at Polish Radio Studio 12 in June 1971 (1-11) and April 1982 (12)

Performed by:

Bernard Kawka - vocals
Jerzy Mych - vocals
Wlodzimierz Parzynski - vocals
Ewa Wanat - vocals

About:

The best Polish vocal group ever - Novi Singers come in to view in the middle of 1960s. The members of the group included Bernard Kawka, Ewa Wanat, Janusz Much, and Waldemar Parzynski. Later on after Bernard Kafka left the band, Ryszard Szeremeta joined the group.

With their absolute technically perfect commend of the singing, NOVI were often compared to Lambert-Ross-Hendricks. What distinguished the band from their contemporaries was their unique background, indulged in authentic Polish folk music, and music of Polish-French composer Frederic Chopin.

Jan Borkowski wrote about NOVI: 'The NOVI use their voices like instruments. They can give the monosyllables of their vocalizes any sound and articulation they wish. 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.'

Describing their unique style, Bernard Kawka of NOVI observed: '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'.

Another member of NOVI - Ewa Wanat - continued: 'Above all we found the human voice to be a perfect jazz instrument and that the possibilities in sound, expression and interpretation were unlimited. We knew that there was still much to be done in the field we had chosen and so we decided to become real improvisers: to create music while singing. We resigned from lyrics, and began to scat. Texts are self-determining and make improvisation difficult, while we want our music to be spontaneous, fresh and full of improvising expression and rhythmic dynamism that belongs to Afro-rooted music'.