Czesław Niemen

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Czesław Niemen (real name Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki) (February 16, 1939 - January 17, 2004) was one of the most important and original Polish rock musicians, singing mainly in the Polish language.

The Czesław Niemen grave plate on Powązki Cementary in Warsaw

Niemen was born in Wasiliszki in Grodno district. He was a singer with a wide voice scale and rich intonation, a composer and a keyboard player. He made his debut in the early 1960s, singing a Polish kind of rock and roll and soul music. His song of 1967, Dziwny jest ten świat (Strange Is This World) became the most important Polish protest song of that era. He was one of the first Poles to wear long hair and colourful clothes, introducing psychedelia style to communist Poland. The first three records he recorded with his band "Akwarele" (The Watercolour Paintings), later he recorded with his new bands: "Enigmatic", "Grupa Niemen" and "Aerolit". In 1969 he changed musical style to progressive rock, recording the monumental album Enigmatic. The most notable song from it was Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod (A Mournful Rhapsody in Memory of Jozef Bem), based on the 19th century poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The rest of Enigmatic songs were poetry as well. Niemen played Hammond organ, later mellotron and Moog synthesizer on his records.

In the early 1970s, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label, and in 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and electronic music (Katharsis album). In 1972 he also contributed with a song perfomed by him in the movie The Wedding (Wesele, 1972) by film director Andrzej Wajda , laureate of an honorary Oscar. Later, Niemen has also composed film soundtrack and theater music. In the 1990s he also showed interest in painting and computer graphics. He died of cancer in Warsaw.