Foundry616, Sydney’s finest jazz club, is thrilled to present Anna Maria Jopek and her band, direct from Poland, for what promises to be an exciting start to 2016.

With the recent release of her long-awaited album Polanna, Anna Maria Jopek, Poland’s most exciting jazz singer, brings her quartet to Australia for the first time.
Anna Maria Jopek (AMJ) is one of the most charismatic & original voices in European music. A passionate visionary, composer and improviser, she has sold one million records in Poland alone and has won every prominent Polish music award possible. Her musical endeavors to date, include collaborations with outstanding local and international artists including Pat Metheny, Bobby McFerrin, Ivan Lins, Youssou N’Dour, Makoto Ozone and Richard Bona among others.
From Toronto to London, from Berlin to Tokyo, she gives around one hundred concerts each year (in venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Blue Note Tokyo, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv).
‘Anna is original, unique, different. She’s brave, she’s modest, she’s open. She’s a great musician’. Pat Metheny
Drawing from Polish musical roots merged with her knowledge and interest in classical, folk music, pop and jazz, Anna chooses not to belong to any of these worlds, but to freely draw on each of them, finding her own authentic style. AMJ admits it was actually the traditional Polish music (her parents were part of a legendary Polish folk ensemble) combined with her “classical upbringing” (as a pianist she graduated from F.Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw) that has left the biggest imprint on her musical consciousness and led to her distinct vocal language. 
When asked about her music, AMJ insists: ‘Please do not file my music under jazz. Neither as pop or folk…. I embrace lots of influences. Jazz is by far the most important in its freedom, its harmony and its sense of time, but I was brought up with the old Polish folk songs. So I’m kind of rooted in all these Slavic sounds’

Anna has always been fascinated with discovering and drawing on the sense of Polish identity in music – seeking a distinctive tone, the Polish soul captured in sounds… How to describe this gift, this elusive melancholy, longing, pride with a dash of arrogance, tenderness combined with haughtiness, light with darkness – so often existing side by side in Polish songs and dances, especially in Chopin’s mazurkas? To Anna and her band, these things happen on stage every time they perform and are palpable in both their live and recorded music.
In her attempt to reach the essence of the Slavic soul in music, AMJ sings and improvises, drawing inspiration from the works of Chopin, Moniuszko, Szymanowski and even of Renaissance Wenceslas from Szamotuły.  AMJ collides modal nostalgia with feisty Polish dance rhythms. The combination triggers jazz improvisation and gives the listener a chance of discovering universal space of eclectic sound, beyond time and borders. Her desire is that they transcend their native culture, reaching the world in ways that genres such as Brazilian Bossa Nova have done. She sees it as a musical code that is deciphered and known worldwide, a musical convention which inspires people everywhere.
Polanna suggests both a beautiful name (combination of Polish names Pola and Anna) and music of pastoral origin (“pole” means “field” in Polish): in effect, a musical journey that encompasses self and identity.
Join Anna and her band on this exciting journey.

Anna Maria Jopek – lead voc, TC eletronics
Robert Kubiszyn – bass guit, voc, effects
Krzysztof Herdzin – piano, accordeon, calimba, flute, keyboard, iPhone, cajon
Rafał Smoleń – sound engineer

KRZYSZTOF HERDZIN – piano
Krzysztof Herdzin is a professional jazz and pop musician recording over 160 CD’s, 11 as a leader). He is also an academic lecturer and concert pianist with 10 Gold Records to his credit. Other achievements include: artistic director of prestigious productions for both public and private television stations, conducting Orchestre National de Belgique, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra in China, Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia and has worked with such renowned jazz artists as Maria Schneider, Gregoire Maret, Gil Goldstein, Richard Bona, Oscar Castro Neves, Gary Husband and Dhafer Youssef.

ROBERT KUBISZYN – bass
Acoustic and electric bass player, composer and producer. Born in Cracow, Poland.
Robert is one of the most versatile and in-demand bassist on the polish scene. He is well known for his talents on both the acoustic and the electric bass guitar and has performed as a session musician and sideman throughout his career, with a large list of Polish and worldwide artists with whom he has worked from jazz to pop. His discography includes over 100 albums while recent collaborations include such prominent artists as: Anna Maria Jopek, Gregoire Maret 4tet, Michael “Patches” Stewart, Grzegorz Turnau and others. 
Robert has collaborated on many projects with Anna Maria Jopek with Pat Metheny, Makoto Ozone, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Oscar Castroneves, Richard Bona and others. Robert also produces and arranges for other artists. Robert’s first solo album „Before Sunrise” was released in 2010.

Music on-line www.promo.amjmusic.com/music