Raphaelle Brochet & Przemysław Strączek Quartet

Raphaelle Brochet – vocal, voice

Przemysław Strączek – guitar

Marcin Kaletka – tenor and soprano saxophones

Piotr Narajowski – double bass

Piotr Budniak – drums

It is very rare that one has the pleasure of meeting a true artist. Raphaelle Brochet’s never ending journey into the world of global performing arts and music has led to her becoming a truly powerful and inspiring performer. Her versatility and dedication to learn have all fed into her unique sound, and she is today one of the most sought-after improvising vocalists in Europe.

Jazz was truly her native language. Raphaëlle was born to musician parents and started her career at the age of 17 by recording an album with Floris Nico-Bunink (Mingus, Billy Holliday)

under the label Daybreak. After studying Jazz in French Conservatories, she spent a year in Montreal and another in New York City, to explore North American performing practices and write music.

In parallel to her jazz studies, Raphaëlle went to South India for more than 20 years to study Carnatic singing with Sarada Thota and konnakol with Ghatam Govindarajan. Then she received a full scholarship from the Wesleyan University, USA, and got a Masters of Ethnomusicology from one of the highest ranked universities of the world, specialized in South Indian music.

Her main collaborations include Nguyên Lê, Heiri Känzig, Sixun, Sophie Alour, Pierre de Bethmann, Ivan Paduart, and she is also very involved in cross-disciplinary projects such as theater, dance and cinema. She is also very active as an educator and gives regular workshops all around the globe.

Now based in Paris, Raphaëlle‘s current projects includes a solo performance, and a 4tet

Przemysław Strączek Quartet was founded in 2018. The band’s music is characterized by a modern approach to the quartet sound using instrumental timbre and sonorisms. The songs contain references to various achievements of jazz music, including the Polish jazz school, from modal jazz, through free jazz, to contemporary harmony. Elements of these genres were filtered by the author, reflecting his perception of contemporary music through the prism of the guitar as an accompanying and solo instrument. The interaction, intuition and musical fantasy of the quartet members give the music a unique atmosphere

Their album Fig Tree was chosen by Jazz Fuel as one of the best European jazz albums of 2020. The vinyl version of this album turned out to be a bestseller among all vinyl records sold in Poland according to the Association of Audio Video Producers (Olis) in the first week after the premiere (January 2021), in this case overtaking pop and rock music stars.

The quartet went on many concert tours in Poland, Italy, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, playing tours with European jazz star Andy Sheppard.