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Katarzyna Zimek: Tangos with lyrics by Władysław Szlengel, two CDs compiled and edited by Katarzyna Zimek and published by Gazeta Wyborcza in May 2015.
These two CDs are the first published collections of tangos with lyrics by Wladyslaw Szlengel.
Wladyslaw Szlengel was lyricist, comedian, one of the creators of Warsaw suburb street songs, and the Warsaw Ghetto Poet. He was born in Warsaw and lived almost all his life in Wola district in a building on Waliców Street 14 - the one which still stands and is currently covered with the wall mural "Stone and What". He had strong connection to hometown.
In the thirties, his poems have begun to appear in the press. He was also writing texts for the Polish literary cabarets. In 1939 he took part in the "September campaign" against Germans. Later, in the Warsaw ghetto, he wrote poems documenting the experience of the Holocaust. In the "Cafe Sztuka" he co-founded and run a "Live Journal" - a humorous chronicle of ghetto, a cabaret version of newspaper columns. He was killed along with his wife during the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto on May 8, 1943. He was 31 years old.
Before the war he was well known and sought after songwriter of many tangos, both sentimental and cheerful, some written with popular culture of Warsaw underclass in mind. He authored many Polish versions of songs from foreign hit movies (including German "Tango Notturno" and Italian "Torna piccina mia"). The prototype of tango "Podwórzowy grajek" (Street Fiddler) was a song "Hert mikh an" from the movie "Yidl mit'n fidl", which was a Polish-American co-production in Yiddish (music by Abraham Ellstein). On occasion Polish texts of Szlengel became a canvas for Yiddish lyrics, as was in the case of tango "Dokąd mam iść" (Where shall I go?) to the tune of the hit Russian song composed by Oscar Strock (Golubye glaza). The title and some phrases of Szlengel's version were taken over by Samuel Korn-Teuer who created "Vu Ahin zol ikh geyn?" - song taking on the Jewish fate, made famous abroad after the war, but recorded in Warsaw already in 1938 by Menashe Oppenheim, and sung later in the Warsaw Ghetto.
The first recording of tangos with lyrics by Szlengel on gramophone records come in 1936. Most often he was writing together with Józef Lipski. Subsequently they were performing together in Cafe Sztuka (Lipski was also murdered in 1943). He collaborated with the composer Boleslaw Mucman, privately colleague from the yard on Walicow Street. Together they created hit Warsaw street songs, stylized pastiches of urban folklore, which were sung by everybody in the pre-war Warsaw and are known now. The street orchestras included these songs in their repertoire. Mucman was killed in 1942 during the liquidation of the ghetto.
Katarzyna Zimek (C) 2015
CD1 Tanga sentymentalne
1. WRÓĆ DO MNIE, MOJA MAŁA - Stefan Witas
(muz. C.A. Bixio, 1938)
2. DAJ MI RÓŻĘ, SENORITO - Janusz Popławski
(z J. Lipskim, muz. R. Sielicki, 1939)
3. TANGO NOTTURNO - Mieczysław Fogg
(z J. Lipskim, muz. H.O. Borgmann, 1938)
4. KSIĘŻYC I JA - Wiera Gran
(muz. Mascheroni, 1939)
5. ARGENTYŃSKA NOC - Janusz Popławski
(muz. G. Manno, 1939)
6. PÓJDĘ ZA TOBĄ WSZĘDZIE - Stefan Witas
(muz. J. Witas, 1938)
7. ZAPŁAKANE OCZY - Mieczysław Fogg
(muz. J. Wilner, 1938)
8. ZAPOMNIANY ROMANS - Adam Aston
(z J. Lipskim, muz. T. Kwieciński, 1937)
9. TANGO POŻEGNANIA - Janusz Popławski
(muz. M. Garbo, 1939)
10. DOKĄD MAM IŚĆ - Stefan Witas
(muz. O. Strok, 1938)
11. PODWÓRZOWY GRAJEK - Adam Aston
(z J. Lipskim, muz. A. Ellstein, 1937)
CD2 Tanga andrusowskie
1. JAK ZABAWA, TO ZABAWA (fokstrot wakacyjny) - Chór Juranda
(z J. Rybą, muz. A. Lewandowski, 1936)
2. JADZIEM, PANIE ZIELONKA (tango wesołe) - Tadeusz Faliszewski
(z J. Lipskim, muz. B. Mucman, 1937)
3. JA PANIĄ GDZIEŚ WIDZIAŁEM - Tadeusz Faliszewski
(z J. Lipskim, muz. Kratky, Sobotka, 1936)
4. SKONFISKOWANE TANGO - Adam Aston
(z J. Lipskim, muz. F. Scher, 1936)
5. DZIEWCZYNA Z PODWALA (tango charakterystyczne) - Mieczysław Fogg
(muz. B. Mucman, 1939)
6. PANNA ANDZIA MA WYCHODNE (tango komiczne) - Chór Juranda
(muz. B. Mucman, 1936)
7. OCZY MOJEJ ZOSI - Marian Demar
(muz. O. Strok, 1938)
8. CHODŹ NA PIWKO NAPRZECIWKO (tango wesołe) - Edward Jasiński
(muz. B. Mucman, 1938)
9. RAZ SIĘ ŻYJE (tango andrusowskie) - Adam Wysocki
(z J. Lipskim, muz. R. Sielicki, 1937)
10. PARDON, JA NIE NALEGAM (tango charakterystyczne) - Tadeusz Faliszewski
(z J. Lipskim, muz. W. Eiger, 1936)
Compilation and edition: Katarzyna Zimek
Digitalization and mastering: Tomasz M. Jankowski