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The Yiddish word KROKE means "Cracow". The
group Kroke is strongly linked to Kazimierz,
a Jewish settlement that had been an
autonomous Jewish town up to the 19th
century and then became the Jewish
neighbourhood of Cracow. Until 1939 Cracow
and especially Kazimierz was one of the most
important centres of Jewish cultural life in
Europe.
The group was created in 1992 in Cracow on
the initiative of three lifelong friends and
graduates of the Cracow Academy of Music:
Tomasz Lato, Tomasz Kukurba and Jerzy Bawol.
Having gone through the successive phases of
education in classical music, and then
fascination with jazz and progressive music,
as Kroke they concentrate on playing and
composing with the realm of authentic Jewish
music. Each member of Kroke is equally
strongly engaged in the creative process of
the group.
Though the label "Klezmer" may indicate a
certain direction, the music of Kroke is not
necessarily linked to any of the styles
nowadays connected with this concept. Using
traditional material as the foundations on
which to build ingenuous arrangements and
improvisations, exploiting their previous
experience, transmitting the profundity of
man’s feelings and nature, Kroke creates
new, unique compositions as well as a sound
which is thus far unheard in Jewish music.
The release of a first cassette entitled
KROKE in 1993 led to numerous invitations to
festivals and concerts all over Europe.
Beside their regular concerts in Cracow the
group started to tour extensively. Among
many other successful concerts there were
highlights like the E.B.U. Contemporary Folk
Festival (Roskilde/Denmark) in June ’96 and
the WOMAD Festival (Reading/U.K.) in July
’97. At the same time the group intensified
their work on the improvement of their
technique and - through study of the sacred
books - investigated the tradition and
philosophy of the Jewish nation.
The mystical atmosphere of Kazimierz, the
unshaken dignity of its six-hundred-year-old
tradition, reflection on the sufferings of
the past, on the present, on hope and trust
in man, as well as common creative work
found their outcome in the album entitled
TRIO (Oriente RIENCD04), which was released
1996 in Berlin/Germany.
Since then, six more albums has been
released, showing each time the highest
creativity in Kroke’s evolution, last album
in 2007 entitled SEVENTH TRIP (Oriente)
KROKE are:
Tomasz
Kukurba ................ violín
Jerzy
Bawol ........................
accordion
Tomasz
Lato .......................
double
bass
Invited artist:
Tomasz
Grochot ................ .percussion
JERZY
BAWOL
(accordion)
Born in Cracow 1969, he started playing the
accordion in elementary school at the age of
nine and gave his first concert at the age of
twelve. During his time at the High School and
the Music Academy of Cracow, where he studied
classical accordion, he was touring Poland,
Germany and France with solo concerts. After
finishing the Academy in 1992, he worked
moreover as a studio musician and with the
Cracow opera, focusing on contemporary music.
His work with KROKE is definitely influenced
by his grandfather, who was an acclaimed
Klezmer musician.
TOMASZ
KUKURBA
(violin)
Born in Cracow 1969, he started playing the
violin in elementary school. At the age of ten
he sang in the Cracow Philharmonic Choir and
toured Germany and France, especially with the
works of Krisztof Penderecki. During his time
at the High School, at the age of fourteen, he
started to play the viola, which became his
main instrument, and worked with the
avantgardistic Jazz Ensemble
"Mixtura". Like the other members of
KROKE he studied classical music at the Music
Academy of Cracow. During his studies he was
member of the Academy's String Quartet and
various other chamber orchestras, playing
especially the music of Penderecki, and joined,
together with Tomasz Lato, the "Sinfonietta
Cracovia" and an experimental Jazz Group.
He played numerous concerts in Poland, Germany
and France.
TOMASZ
LATO
(double bass)
Tomasz Lato was born in Cracow 1968. Both his
parents were musicians, and so he started
playing the piano as a child. At the age of
fourteen he changed to the acoustic bass. His
wide range of musical interests led him to
various ensembles. During his time at the High
School and his studies at the Music Academy of
Cracow he played in Jazz Groups, worked as a
musical director in theatre and broadcast
productions, joined the Philharmonic Orchestra,
the "Capella Cracoviense", the
"Sinfonietta Cracovia" and the
"Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra".
Beside all that activities he is a requested
studio musician, also for pop music
productions and soundtracks.
- DISCOGRAPHY
"Trio"
(Oriente Musik,96)
"Eden"
(Oriente Musik,97)
"Live
at The Pit" (Oriente Musik,98)
"The
Sounds of the Vanishing World" (Oriente
Music,99) - German Record Critics Award
2000)
"Ten
pieces to save the world" (Oriente
Music, 03)
"Quartet
Live at Home" (Oriente Music 04)
“Seventh Trip” (Oriente Music 07)
[ Ajde Jano - Kroke,
Bajit Chadasz 2007 ]
Justyna Rosa & Krzysztof
Rosa
[ Time - Live at Urkult Festival Sweden
2004 ]
[ Spirits of music - Nigel Kennedy & Kroke
Quartet, Eden ]
[ Spirits of music - Nigel Kennedy & Kroke
Quartet, Czardasz ]
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