Conversation with Janusz Prusinowski | Progressive Village Music from Poland

Janusz Prusinowski Kompania play rural music of Polish villages on fiddles, flutes, accordions, and other traditional instruments. They ground their music in dance rhythms, adding a modern improvisational flair to old melodies. They follow in traditions of village masters they have learned from, including Jan Lewandowski, Kazimierz Meto, Józef Zaraś, Piotr and Jan Gaca, Tadeusz Kubiak and many others. But they are also a progressive band with their own characteristic sound and language of improvisation. Kompania’s unique style is the result of their attempt to find new ways of interpreting the most important elements of village music from central Poland. The band has performed in most European countries (including Poland of course), as well as in Asia and North America (including Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Symphony Center). The band’s recordings have received rave reviews and national awards in Poland, and bandleader Janusz Prusinowski was awarded a Medal for Merit to Culture—Gloria Artis (Bronze), as well as the annual prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Writing in Roots Magazine, Andrew Cronshaw said: “The music they produce—lurching, rhythm-jumping—is vigorous, grainy-textured, even appearing rough on the surface, but in no way is any of the playing anything but extremely skilled; these are contemporarily aware players, with deep love and understanding of central Polish traditional music and its techniques.”

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-10429

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