Krystyna Durys – polish jazz vocalist fascinated with swing era and inspired mainly by the work of The Queen of Jazz – Ella Fitzgerald. Krystyna Durys is mostly a self-taught singer with enormous love for jazz standards.

Krystyna began her adventure with singing at the age of 7 being a member of a vocal-dance group and two choirs for a few years, journeying trough different genres and evolving her singing skills she got interested in jazz. Most of her education is based on listening to the best jazz vocalists of the swing era like Ella Fitgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan among others and working with various jazz musicians from her hometown performing in Poland and abroad. During that time she has developed a stagecraft and audience rapport that has come to characterize her live shows. Till 2012 Krystyna cooperated with such bands and big bands like Jan Konop Big Band (Poland), Riverboat Ramblers Swing Orchestra (Poland/ Ukraine) and Take It Easy – a jazz band founded by one of the most known saxophonists in Poland Przemek Dyakowski.

In 2012 in cooperation with marvolous jazz musicians and friends Marek Jurski (grand piano, arrangements), Marcin Janek (saxophones/ clarinet), Maciej Sadowski (double bass) and Adam Zagrodzki (drummer) Krystyna started her own band. At the beginning of 2016 two outstanding musicians – Paweł Hulisz (trumpet/ flugehorn) and Adam Wiśniewski (trombone) joined the band. Thanks to the horn section the band got a further boost up and gained a big band sound so characteristic for swing era.

In September 2016 Krystyna released her first album Tribute To Ladies Of Jazz. Top polish jazz stars appeared on the album as special guests: Włodzimierz Nahorny, Przemek Dyakowski, Robert Majewski, Wojciech Staroniewicz. Beautiful and fresh arrangements were made by: Artur Jurek, Marek Jurski and Henryk Wieczyński. More than 20 musicians were involved in the making of this album. The album collected marvelous reviews gaining great sympathy of listeners and esteem of the hosts of jazz broadcasts across Poland.

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:

• I prize “Golden Washboard 2014” at the 44. International Old Jazz Meeting in Iława (the oldest jazz contest in Poland)
• 2nd place in the category of New Hope 2016 in Jazz Top servey of the Jazz Forum magazine
• Nomination in the category of Jazz Vocalist Of The Year 2016 in Jazz Top servey of the Jazz Forum magazine
• Nomination for the Grand Prix of Polish Music Lovers Society in the category of New Hope of Music Lovers
  

IMPORTANT CONCERTS:

• Olsztyn Filharmonic 2019 (Olsztyn, Poland)
• International Traditional Jazz Festival Rybnik 2019 (Rybnik, Poland)
• Concert for Nobel Peace Prize winner and former polish president Lech Wałęsa 2018 (Kolding, Denmark)
• International Jazz Festival Praha 2018 (Prague, Czech Republik)
• Musical Autumn 2018 (Dolny Kubin, Slovakia)
• Hällevik Tradjazz Festival 2018, 2019 (Hällevik, Sweden)
• Polish Happy Jazz Fest (Gliwice, Poland)
• Ladies’ Jazz Festival 2017 (Gdynia, Poland)
• Østersø Jazz Festival 2017, 2018 (Bornholm, Denmark)
• Java Jazz Festival 2017 (Jakarta, Indonesia) – with her own band and Ron King Big Band (USA),
• Metropolis is Okey 2016 (Gdynia, Poland)
• Wieluń Jazz Meetings 2016 (Wieluń, Poland)

KRYSTYNA DURYS PERFORMS AND COOPERATES WITH BEST POLISH MUSICIANS:

Paweł Hulisz (trumpet/ flugehorn), Marcin Janek (saxophones/ clarinet), Adam Wiśniewski (trombone), Marek Jurski (grand piano, arrangements), Jarosław Stokowski (double bass), Adam Zagrodzki (drums) and also Artur Jurek and Henryk Wieczyński (arrangements).