Jazz is freedom – Vladyslav “Adzik” Sendecki

The Hamburg period – jazz formations
 

Vladyslav Sendecki has developed a very close relationship with Hamburg. Since the beginning – in other words, since the mid-1990s – he has lived in the centre of the city on the banks of the Alster river. He has become a firm fixture of the Hamburg music scene. 

Together with Gerry Brown, Detlev Beier and Ingolf Burkhardt, he founded the Hamburg Jazz Quartet, which also collaborated with Wolfgang Schlüter. Their first album, “Jazz Christmas”, contains jazz arrangements of German Christmas songs. The band gave several concerts.

The virtuoso jazz duo with Jürgen Spiegel (drums) and Vladyslav Sendecki (piano) was founded in 2018. They generated a great deal of international interest right from the start. The duo has released two albums to date: “two in the mirror” and “solace”. The latter, consisting of seven compositions by Sendecki and six by Spiegel, was recorded in Hamburg during the lockdown of 2021. NDR was positive about the outcome of this collaboration: “Sendecki and Spiegel play their way to freedom, they can rely on each other. Sendecki, one of the most virtuoso pianists of the jazz world, uses every opportunity to incorporate breathtaking runs or unanticipated harmonies into the smooth melodies, which suddenly bend what at first is an easygoing piece into a corner, into a new direction. Chopin and Debussy are an inspiration here, no less than Coltrane”.[2] The critics also praised Jürgen Spiegel for his empathic rhythm. In 2022, “solace” was named “CD of the month” by the Polish monthly magazine “Jazz Forum”.[3]

Since 2011, Vladyslav Sendecki has been performing concerts with the Atom String Quartet (Dawid Lubowicz, Marcin Hałat – violin, Michał Zaborski – viola, Krzysztof Lenczowski – cello). The Atom String Quartet is one of the most original chamber ensembles worldwide, going far beyond the possibilities of a classical string quartet due to its open-minded approach to improvisation. With Vladyslav Sendecki as a soloist, who is a generation older than the other players, the ensemble’s repertoire ranges from jazz to contemporary music and brilliantly crosses the boundaries between musical genres.

One particular area of interest for Sendecki is projects that connect poetry and jazz. With his second wife, Angélique Duvier (www.angeliqueduvier.com), a German actress and writer, he founded the “Lyrik & Jazz Ensemble” in 2009. Together, they developed poetry-jazz programmes such as “Ein polnischer Traum” (“A Polish Dream”), “Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff” and “Chopin”. During their performances, they include poems by Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska in the translation by Karl Dedecius, as well as other works. They present poetry and jazz in Germany and Poland, but have also been invited to perform in China and Sweden.

Return to Poland after many years
 

Sendecki says that he has his wife Angélique to thank for the fact that he finally returned to Poland in 2005, after spending 25 years far away from home. One evening, after they had played a concert together in Jena, his wife said to him in the car: “Now let’s drive to Poland”. Sendecki missed the connection with his homeland, despite the fact that Poland had constantly been in his thoughts during all the years that he had been away. He took advantage of opportunities to play with musicians from Poland, and accepted invitations from Polish-German organisations whenever he could. He also encouraged his German colleagues to collaborate with Polish musicians, and was delighted whenever the NDR Bigband undertook projects that brought together Polish and German musicians. Returning to Poland after 25 years was a very emotional experience. He felt how familiar everything was – the culture, the landscape, and above all the people who had given him so much.

After that, everything happened of its own accord. In 2005, Witold Wnuk, a former school colleague from Kraków, got in touch. He was organising the Summer Jazz Festival and invited Adzik to join in. Shortly afterwards, Adzik fulfilled his dream: together with Wnuk, he set up the “My Polish Heart” foundation, which was designed to support artists. In Sendecki’s view, it is older artists more than anyone else who need support, since the younger ones are already helped by various programmes. As he explains in conversation with Porta Polonica: “Hardly anyone thinks about the older artists who laid the foundation for what we as artists are today”. 

After visiting Poland in 2005, Sendecki accepted invitations to play concerts there, such as at the “Jazz na Starówce” (“Jazz in the Old Town”) summer festival in Warsaw. There, he played with the Polish Blue Note Quartet: Vladyslav Sendecki (Piano), Andrzej Olejniczak (saxophone, tenor saxophone), Paweł Dobrowolski (drums), Michał Barański (bass, bass guitar). In the words of the music press: “What Adzik Sendecki offered goes beyond the human imagination. He is not a pianist, but a true magician, while at the same time, he is an artist with more than the usual charisma, a lively intelligence and an unusual talent for making contact with the audience.”[4]

In 2021, Vladyslav Sendecki left the NDR Bigband and retired. However, this new phase of his life in no way meant that he slowed down. Quite the opposite. He now plays in the Sendecki, Nils Petter Molvær and Mino Cinelu trio, and in the duos Sendecki/Spiegel and Sendecki/Ballard. Currently, he is working on a new Sendecki & Spiegel CD together with the EuropaChorAkademie, and on the music for a new film, “Fluss” (“River”).

Awards and prizes
 

In 1975, with Extra Ball, Sendecki won the main prize for bands at the Jazz on the Oder (Jazz nad Odrą) festival. He also won an individual prize along with Jarosław Śmietana.

In 1980, the readers of “Jazz Forum” (Warsaw) voted him the best jazz pianist of the year.

The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – Sendecki’s chosen home in Germany – presented him with the highest jazz award, the “Hamburg Jazzpreis”, in 2011. 

In 2015, he received the highest Polish award for achievements in the arts, the “Gloria Artis”. 

Also in 2015, the mayor of Sendecki’s birthplace, Gorlice, presented him with the “Nagroda Dersława Karwacjana” (“Dersław Karwacjan Prize”) for outstanding achievements in the arts.

In 2017, he was awarded an honorary citizenship by his hometown of Gorlice. 

In 2021, he was awarded the “Most Starosty” (“Starost Bridge”) prize for his outstanding achievements in jazz, and as a memory of his homeland by the regional governor of Gorlice. 

At the end of October 2023, Sendecki was presented with the prestigious “Goldene Eule” (“Golden Owl”) award in Vienna.

Joanna de Vincenz, October 2023

The author wishes to thank Vladyslav Sendecki for the long interview over many hours, as well as the editor-in-chief of “Jazz Forum”, Paweł Brodowski, and the editorial team for providing the archive material. 

Selected discography of Vladyslav Sendecki

• Recital (1983) / Michał Urbaniak, Vladyslav Sendecki
• Men from Wilnau (1988)
• Wagnerama feat. Mike Kilian – Haunted (1994)
• Seelenlandschaften (1999) / Joachim Berendt, Krzysztof Zgraja, Philip Catherine, Vladyslav Sendecki
• Like a Bird (2000)
• A Tribute to Raymond Scott (2005)
• Piano (2007)
• Electric Treasures (2008) / Markus Stockhausen, Arild Andersen, Patrice Héral, Vladyslav Sendecki
• Solo Piano at Schloss Elmau (2010)
• Le Jardin oublié / My Polish Heart (2018) / Vladyslav Sendecki & Atom String Quartet
• two in the mirror (2019) / Sendecki & Spiegel
• solace (2022) / Sendecki & Spiegel

Video portrait by Veronika Emily Pohl about Vladyslav Sendecki in the series NDR Bigband “Going Solo” (2019)

https://www.ndr.de/orchester_chor/bigband/audio_video/NDR-Bigband-Going-Solo-Vladyslav-Sendecki,sendecki122.html