Dżamble

Dzamble were a relatively short-lived (with a couple of breaks) Polish ensemble with jazz-rock leanings. Actually, the music they played on their sole album was a mixture of jazz, rock, R&B, and classical music. All tracks have song structures with bluesy vocals sung in Polish and great extended instrumental passages. You can say the music is close to Blood Sweat and Tears with some hints of Ekseption. The origins of the band date as far back as to September 1966 when Tadeusz Gogosz (ex- Szwagry) and Jan Budziaszek together with Wieslaw Wilczkiewicz, Jerzy Horwarth, Edward Aniol, Czeslaw Styczen and Jan Kaleta formed the first band called Jumbles (sailors from "Book of Nonsense" by Edward Lear). The band played their own versions of standards and jazzy compositions of Jan Kaleta but it broke up in February 1967 for various reasons. The second line-up (Wieslaw Wilczkiewicz, Andrzej Ibek, Benedykt Radecki, Marian Pawlik and Marian Koster) also quickly ceased to exist (Autumn 1967). Dzamble were reactivated again in Autumn 1968 in a jazz club "Helikon" in Cracow and the band started to look for a vocalist. After short collaborations with a couple of singers at the beginning of 1969 they finally found Andrzej Zaucha who became a permanent member of the band. Soon, the band started to perform during festivals and contests and quickly gained success. They played concerts not only in Poland but also in the neighbouring countries like Hungary and also recorded some of their songs for the radio. In 1971 Dzamble recorded their first and, as it turned out later, also the last studio album titled "Wolanie o slonce nad swiatem". The band was supported in the studio by many guests from the first line of Polish jazz and rock musicians at the time: M. Alaszewski - vocals, M. Pawlak - vocals, J. Muniak - tenor and soprano saxophone, flute, Z. Seifert - soprano saxophone, M. Urbaniak - soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass guitar, violin, T. Stanko - trumpet, J. Bartz - percussion, J. Gawrych - percussion. Because of a conflict with the label Polskie Nagrania the band didn't manage to record another album and fell apart at the end of 1972. Dzamble were reactivated for a short period in 1978. Since 1980 the vocalist Andrzej Zaucha conducted a successful solo career in music as well as in acting until he was shot in October 1991 by a French director who suspected him of having an affair with his wife (he shot them both actually). J. Bezucha was an active jazz musician to his death in a car accident in January 1994. M. Pawlik is still an active and highly apreciated jazz musican and also manufactures double-basses and bass guitars in his workshop in Cracow. B. Radecki at the beginning of the 80s joined Waly Jagiellonskie and also played with Maanam. The only album of Dzamble was reissued on a CD in 1993 by Intersonus, also in the Niepokonani series.