Wojciech Waglewski – a Musician, Father of Musicians and Leader of Other Musicians

How to become a legendary musician who leads iconic bands, and combines this with being a father of musicians? Story of Wojciech Waglewski may help answer this question.

Wojciech Waglewski – The Story

Wojciech Waglewski was born on April 21, 1953 in Nowy Sącz. He is the son of journalists Jerzy and Barbara Waglewski. His family was not a musical one. He loved music by himself, and started learning it in high school. That’s when he reached for a guitar and taught himself to play it. Yes, Wojciech Waglewski, who is a very awarded musician, collaborating with the greatest musicians in the world, is self-taught. From the very beginning, he was interested in improvised rock. Interviewed by Interia Muzyka, he admitted that in his youth he listened to musicians such as Zappa, Hendrix or the CAN band. He was less interested in bands like Cream. Waglewski already in his youth had aspirations to lead a music group. He decided to give it a try and started the Po upływie czasu band. They played in the Warsaw club Alfa. In that time, he also played in other bands, for instance in RH-, Zen and Nirwana.

For the next few years, he played in various bands, such as Thunderbird, Bemibem, Koman Band, Ya-Sou. In the meantime, he studied sociology at the University of Warsaw and completed his military service.

In 1980, Waglewski joined the Osjan band, which can be considered an important period of his musical development. He collaborated with musicians such as Jacek Ostaszewski and Tomasz Hołuj, which broadened his musical horizons and introduced him to the sounds inspired by world music and folklore. Waglewski recorded five albums with the band: ‘Roots’, ‘Głową w dół’, ‘Muzyka fruwającej ryby’, ‘Księga liści / Drzewo Osjan’ and ‘Po prostu’. The band played abroad many times.

When Wojciech Waglewski played concerts in Warsaw clubs at the beginning of his career, he was noticed and appreciated by Zbigniew Hołdys – the leader of the legendary Perfect band. The two musicians collaborated in 1982 on the creation of the album ‘I Ching’. During the recording of this album, the idea of ​​founding a band together was born. And in 1984 the new band was formed, called Morawski Waglewski Nowicki Hołdys. The group created one album, in 1985, which they called ‘Świnie’. Shortly thereafter, the band was disbanded. They played seven concerts during their existence. It was rather an unsuccessful project. Waglewski admitted that the combination of four individualists did not work well. In addition, Hołdys was very popular at that time and too much associated with Perfect.

Voo Voo – Beztrosko

The Voo Voo Band

In 1985, Waglewski brought to life a new band, Voo Voo, with a very similar team to the previous one – this time Morawski, Waglewski, Nowicki and Kurtis. This band is the most famous music group of Waglewski. Voo Voo plays diverse music, based mainly on the combination of rock with folk from various cultures and a lot of improvisation. Looking at Waglewski’s history, it is easy to understand where this type of music in his band comes from.

In 1986, Voo Voo released their debut album, which they named after the group. It contained eleven tracks. The album combined the new wave sound of Morawski Waglewski Nowicki Hołdys with the surrealism typical for the Osjan band and some ethnic elements. Waglewski commented on the band’s debut project with the following words:

‘If you listen to it (the album) seriously, it is very naive. These are all surreal stories, with a large admixture of irony – let’s call it that way’ – an interview for the Tylko Rock magazine.

The band is still active today. They have twenty-eight studio albums and ten live albums to their credit. Five of them gained gold status. Voo Voo during their existence had four nominations for Fryderyk Awards, of which they won once in the category Album of the Year – Muzyka Korzeni. The latest album was recorded in 2022. Voo Voo was a very active band – not only in releasing albums – in the eighties they could play 300 concerts a year.

Wojciech Waglewski – Fisz and Emade

For Wojciech Waglewski music is basically his whole life. When his children were born, they had contact with their father’s melodies from the very beginning. Perhaps they were even somewhat doomed to a musical future. As listeners, however, we can rejoice in this fact, because both of his sons are today well-known and good musicians. Fisz and Emade are currently very recognizable, and their songs have millions of views. Although Waglewski’s sons prefer rap rather than melodies played by Voo Voo, several joint projects were carried out. The most famous record of the trio is ‘Męska Muzyka’, which has achieved platinum status.

The musicians also collaborated on the creation of albums such as ‘Matka, Syn, Bóg’ oraz ‘Duchy ludzi i zwierząt’. The music created by the Waglewski trio differs from that of Voo Voo and Fisz Emade Tworzywo. These family projects are a combination of the creativity of each member, which results in the creation of something extremely interesting.

Maleńczuk & Waglewski – Koledzy

Summary

What is particularly interesting about Wojciech Waglewski is his musical activity. He is an extremely hard-working musician. Many times, following the history of a musician, one finally comes across a period of burnout in his work. This cannot really be seen in Waglewski’s story. Ever since he started playing, he has been extremely active. He has participated in a huge number of projects – and not only when you think about creating a music album. Waglewski has often created film tracks, written lyrics for other performers, hosted radio programs and run music workshops. In addition, he has several solo albums to his credit.

He is such a legend of Polish music that in 2017, a book entitled ‘Wagiel. Jeszcze wszystko będzie możliwe’, was published. It is a record of Waglewski’s conversations with Wojciech Bonowicz. The book has as many as 368 pages. The author wrote about the musician’s career and private life, conducting many conversations with him, which took place over a period of ten years. Wojciech Waglewski has given many interviews in his life, which are highly viewed on YouTube. It is worth mentioning that in each of them he seems to be a very likeable and intelligent person. One of the interviews with him became an internet viral. The famous recording ‘wojciech waglewski przerywa wywiad’ became viral because of its undeniable ridicule. A journalist from Radio Koszalin came to an interview with the musician unprepared and asked questions, the answer to which she should know in the first place. Apparently, this recording was played many times in journalism studies as a warning of how not to conduct interviews. Waglewski talks about this situation years later with a smile on his face. I, on the other hand, recommend listening to his music to everyone who does not know it yet.

Article: Paweł Skarzyński
Translate: Natalia Walentyńska
Fot. Official page

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