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Czesław Niemen, real name Czesław Wydrzycki (born February 16, 1939 in Wasiliszki in Grodno district, died January 17, 2004) was one of the most important and original Polish rock musicians, singing mainly in Polish language.
He was a singer with a wide voice scale and ritch intonation, a composer and a keyboard player. He made his debute in the early sixties years, singing a Polish kind of a rock and roll and soul music. His song of 1967, Dziwny jest ten świat (Strange Is This World) became the most important Polish protest song of that era. He was one of the first Polish to wear long hair and colourful clothes, introducing psychedelia style to communist uniform Poland. The first three records he recorded with his band "Akwarele" (the Water-colours), later he recorded with his new bands: "Enigmatic", "Grupa Niemen" and "Aerolit". In 1969 he changed musical style to progressive rock, recording monumental album Enigmatic. The most notable song from it was Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod (A Mournful Rhapsody in Memory of Jozef Bem), being the 19th century poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The rest of Enigmatic songs were poetry as well. Niemen played Hammond organ, later mellotron and Moog synthesizer on his records.
In the early seventies years, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label, and 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 (Katharsis album). later, he has also composed film soundtrack and theater music. In the nineties years he also showed interest in painting and computer graphics. He died from cancer in Warsaw.
Discography:
External links:
http://www.polishjazz.com/pjn/cd/specials.htm
http://www.polishmusic.ca/skok/cds/polskie/grupy/n/niemen/niemen2.html
