A Bouquet (for Lady Day)

Mark Lewandowski’s latest project, A Bouquet (For Lady Day) released on July 14th 2023, signaled the start of a new exciting relationship with Ubuntu Music.

Mark explains: “This album aims to concentrate on the beauty of Billie Holiday’s music and her life. Too often the focus is on the negative side and the pain that she felt during her short time in a cruel world. Her blues, however, I find both sweet and sorrowful. In Liam Noble I’ve found discovered a wonderful friend, collaborator and mentor who’s whose style is rich from his many diverse influences, whilst maintaining what I consider to be a truly unique individual voice. He’s an inspiration to me and I’m thrilled to have him play with me again following Waller, our 2017 treatment of historical music that examines the songbook of the great Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller.

“An additional special guest, vocalist Heidi Vogel, contributes on two of the tracks. Heidi has a wonderful way of singing songs without the smallest shadow of a doubt that she means the lyrics 100%. This feature of her voice reminds me greatly of Billie Holiday, although Heidi possesses her own signature sound and style which has been a pleasure to include on this project. I have carefully selected repertoire (from what is a humongous catalogue!) to highlight some of the key musical relationships in Holliday’s tragically short life. Her pianists, Teddy Wilson and Mal Waldron; song writing partnerships such as the one with misunderstood pianist Herbie Nichols; and who can forget her dearest and closest friend, Lester Young. We have also featured compositions of Billie’s to show the most personal side of her music (although she famously commented that she wasn’t able to sing even a standard song if she didn’t feel the lyrics) – ‘Billie’s Blues’ and ‘Left Alone’ purposefully feature Heidi on these wonderful Holliday originals”.

Mark describes the challenging nature of the project: “I find playing duo with a pianist amongst the most challenging of line-ups, so I have aimed to explore ways of dealing with the level of space and intimacy that goes with this particular instrumentation. It’s forced me to improvise in a different way, trying to take the melodicism of her style and that of her contemporaries, and find my own way as a modern improvising musician – to convey the way her music makes me feel, attempting to avoid pastiche and nostalgia. I hate the words ‘tribute band’ and I have no intention of making this project fall under within that category. I’d see it more as personal reflection and commentary, that hopefully has that magical balance of being informed by the rich tradition of the source material, yet personal and current in its aesthetic. The messages we are trying to convey as we play this repertoire are coming from us, and it is important to us all that we are not merely regurgitating the music that we have selected. I believe I achieved this somewhat with the Waller record, so I’m hoping that the same can be said after this one is released. It’s been on my mind that this may be a developing artistic concept of mine – going back and forth between dealing with the great repertoire of the tradition and my own humble contributions as composer. In no way do I find them to be mutually exclusive.”

Mark shares his feelings concerning his new relationship with Ubuntu Music: “I’m delighted to join the vibrant community of artists and the stellar team of Ubuntu Music. Throughout the whole process of arranging, recording and preparing this music for release, I’ve always had a good feeling in the back of my mind about how it would be to work with Martin (Hummel) and the label. I’m so very happy that this will be the case, and I’m proud to share our music with the public as part of their brilliant and varied catalogue. Ubuntu Music is a ‘music-first’ label, providing a safe and creative space for artists to express their ideas to their fullest. I am excited to begin what I hope will be a long and fruitful relationship with them.”