Czesław Niemen (; born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki; February 16, 1939 – January 17, 2004), occasionally credited mononymously as Niemen, was one of the most important and innovative Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the 20th century, singing primarily in Polish. He possessed an unusually wide voice range and equally rich intonation. He was also an ardent composer and keyboardist.

Biography

Early life

Niemen was born in Stare Wasiliszki in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

(now in the Grodno Region of

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

), to parents Antoni Wydrzycki (1896–1960) and Anna (''née'' Markiewicz; 1897–1986). 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 The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

(called ' Kresy' – 'borderlands' – in Polish). From the age of 10, he was involved in both school and church choirs, sometimes playing organ accompaniment. Niemen briefly studied in Grodno at the State College for one year, after which he was expelled for truancy. In 1959, at the age of 19, the family were forcibly migrated to Northwest Poland along the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

during the second repatriation of Poles, frequently moving between various cities, including

Kołobrzeg Kołobrzeg (; ; ) is a port and spa city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants (). Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (in the middle of the section ...

, Świebodzin and Białogard.

1960s

In the early 1960s, Niemen began performing in student cabarets in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, first singing in foreign languages and later in his native Polish. Niemen found himself in the first group of Polish musicians who were identified with the burgeoning big-beat style of Eastern Europe, thanks to being among 15 winners of a festival for young performers in

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

in 1962. This victory allowed him to join the band Niebiesko-Czarni (The Blue-Blacks), one of the first professional pop-rock bands in Poland, with a number of leading vocalists performing one after another during concerts. He made his commercial debut in the following years, singing Polish rock and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

. 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?"). 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

He was one of the first Polish performers to wear long hair and colourful clothes and introduced the style of

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Poland, which displeased officials. The first three

LP album The LP (from long playing or long play) is an analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specificati ...

'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 Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

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 ''Enigmatics songs were also in sung poetry form. Niemen played the

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

on his records, later moving to the

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

and the

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial 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 The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

in Munich sharing the stage with

Mahavishnu Orchestra The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin (musician), John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of a ...

, 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 Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...

's film '' Wesele (The Wedding)''. In 1974 he recorded ''Mourner's Rhapsody'' with

Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television an ...

and Rick Laird from

. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, recording the album ''Katharsis''. In an interview from this era, he said, "One thing I know is that I'm a composer. I want to concentrate on writing music for film, for theater. I don't know for how long I will continue singing. I am just bored by singing. This form of artistic expression seems quite exhausted for me. At least it does not excite me like it used to."

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 after a long battle with cancerous lymphomas on January 17, 2004, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. His remains were cremated and placed in a columbarium niche on Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw on January 30, 2004. The funeral was attended by over 3,000 people.

Awards and recognitions

Niemen won the Sopot International Song Festival in 1979.

Remembrance

A number of documentaries on the life of Niemen were filmed, including Marek Piwowski's 1968 film ''Sukces'', Krzysztof Rogulski's 1976 film ''Niemen'', Eugeniusz Szpakowski's 2007 film ''Czesław Niemen'', and Krzysztof Magowski's 2014 film ''Sen o Warszawie'' (A Dream About Warsaw). Since March 12, 2004, Czesław Niemen's song ''Sen o Warszawie'' has been performed before each match of Legia Warsaw at the Stadion Wojska Polskiego and is considered the club fans' anthem. In 2009, National Bank of Poland presented three coins dedicated to Niemen: issued on June 19 two silver 10- zloty coins, one of which of square shape, and issued on June 17, 2-zloty coin of Nordic Gold alloy. On February 20, 2011, a museum devoted to Niemen and his musical legacy was opened in the artist's birthplace in Stare Wasiliszki, present-day Belarus.

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),"Akwarele"
– History, by (retrieved December 15, 2017) "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. The word means " aerolite" in Polish.

Discography

Studio albums

English-language albums

Russian-language albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

Czesław Niemen at ProgArchives.com
– photographs, reviews, music, discography
Forum

Czesław Niemen
at culture.pl
Did James Brown Inspire the Beat Generation in Poland?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemen, Czeslaw 1939 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Polish male singers Deaths from cancer in Poland English-language singers from Poland People from Shchuchyn district People from Nowogródek Voivodeship (1919–1939) Polish jazz organists Polish keyboardists Polish male jazz musicians Polish people of Belarusian descent Polish pop singers Polish rock singers Progressive rock keyboardists Recipients of the Meritorious Activist of Culture badge Sopot International Song Festival winners Soviet emigrants to Poland Sung poetry of Poland