Hania Chowaniec-Rybka was well known before she was famous. A singer who specializes muzyka goralska (the music the music of Podhale, the region spread beneath the Tatra Mountains), Hania had made a name for herself long before she was known outside the relatively small confines of Podhale.
Her album “i to, i to” (“This and That”) is a blend of jazz and muzyka goralska. When K told me about it and suggested we buy it, I cringed. Mixing goralski music with this or that genre is nothing new, but it’s seldom done well.
With this album, however, sometimes one style or the other stands out, but never at the sacrifice of the other. It’s music with integrity, in other words. So often, bands that mix Highlander music with anything else create nothing but a travesty, a mix in which bastardized forms of one music plays slave to the other. Sometimes it’s rock with a bit of muzyka goralska , but mostly its the goralska music that dominates. Or at least tries. Instead of sounding like a clever marriage it ends up like a bad date.
Hania’s mix of jazz and the styles of the Polish Highlanders bends both genres just enough to make an accommodating mix.
Here’s my favorite track from the album: “Ola boga.”
| Jo se jes dzieweczka Mam wesolo dusze Bez dzien moge robic Wieczor tanczyc musze. | I’m just a little girl with a happy soul I can do without the day but I must dance at night |
| Ola boga swietego Co to komu do tego Ola boga swietego A kapela gra | Oh dear God, it’s nobody’s business! Oh dear God, and the band’s playing! |
(Polish speakers: How would you have translated “Ola boga swietego” in this case? Nothing sounds right.)
good god, dear lord, my god, god almighty, good heaven, etc, all work — but what’s missing (besides respectful caps) is the slang. You can’t translate slang without sounding silly. You could put it in southern (?) lordy lordy, or whatever, but that would be totally weird.