The Closing Concert of the 22nd Blues nad Bobrem Festival took place on 14 August in the castle courtyard in Kliczków. It was hosted by Jan Chojnacki, who has been associated with Polish Radio Three for many years.
The first performer to appear on stage – together with her class – was Magda Piskorczyk. Under her direction, the young musicians prepared an interesting concert programme. They formed a genuinely good band, whose performance was warmly received by the audience. It is worth adding that most of the musicians in Magda Piskorczyk’s class came from Bolesławiec. Their participation in the workshops was possible, among other things, thanks to financial support obtained through auctions held the previous year.
The next item on the programme was the presentation of the Michał Kobusiak Award for the most promising guitarist. It was presented by Marek Radulego himself to one of the youngest workshop participants – Miłosz Rzeźniewiecki. An award was also presented to the nicest female workshop participant, who turned out to be Natalia Kwiatkowska.
Next, the band Cotton Wing, winner of last year’s Tadeusz Nalepa Blues Band Review, performed on stage. However, the biggest musical event of the evening was the concert by Jarosław Śmietana and his band, featuring Wojciech Karolak, a renowned jazz musician, pianist, composer and, above all, a virtuoso Hammond organist, as well as Bill Neal. The festival had not seen stars of this calibre for a long time! Śmietana was a versatile musician who composed blues and jazz music, but also created music for ballet, film and theatre. He worked with major stars including Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, Gary Bartz, Vinc Mendoza, John Abercrombie, Idris Muhammad, Lee Konitz, Bernie Maupin and Zbigniew Seifert.
That evening, harmonica virtuoso Keith Dunn also appeared on stage. The musician, born in Boston, now lives in the Netherlands. He had already performed in Poland dozens of times, including at the Blues nad Bobrem Festival in 2009. For several years, he performed together with Roman Puchowski.
Sharp rock sounds were served to the audience by G. Wolf, that is, Wojtek Garwoliński. Songs from this part of the concert could be heard on 16 August in Jan Chojnacki’s Polish Radio Three programme “A Whiter Shade of Blues”, devoted primarily to Blues nad Bobrem.
The final performer to appear on stage was HooDooBand, who got the audience dancing with their highly expressive music. The musicians invited Keith Dunn onto the stage and performed one of the songs together. The festival ended with a jam session held in the cellar of Kliczków Castle, which lasted until morning.
Like two years earlier, the Blues nad Bobrem Festival received funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
(information: Karolina Ochocka/ii)