Vitold Rek – double bassist, composer, educator, was born in 1955 in Rzeszów; southeast Poland. He studied classical double bass at the Cracow Academy of Music when Krzysztof Penderecki was rector there. His playing unites jazz influences with classical and East European folk elements, with a focus on live performance and composition. Festival appearances include Montreux, Jazz North Sea / Den Haag, Willisau, the Berlin Jazz Festival, ISB Double Bass Convention USA and the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw among many others. Charlie Mariano, John Tchicai, Albert Mangelsdorff, Karl Berger, Tomasz Stanko, Dom Um Romao, Peter Giger, Emil Mangelsdorff, Gerd Dudek, Heinz Sauer, Ralf Hübner, Bob Degen, Christof Lauer, Makaya Ntshoko and Shlomo Carlebach have featured among his key musical partners. He collaborates with the Frankfurt Radio HR Jazz Ensemble. He teaches jazz double bass and coaches ensembles at both the Hochschule für Musik, Mainz and Hochschule für Musik, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Vitold Rek plays Corelli strings.
In the words of the international music press Vitold Rek is:
"a grand player in the European theater of jazz" (Fred Bouchard, Jazz Times, May 1993, USA)
"Vitold Rek... is one of the most amazing bassists I have ever heard...". (Elliott Simon, Klezmer Shack-New Jewish Music, USA Oct. 2005)
"The bassist's singing, noble pizzicato tone cuts through on "Song of Love" like a tenor cantor intoning a mass. Rek's astonishing technique and musicality shine throughout the album and the quality of the compositions and interplay cannot be faulted." (Matthew Simpkins, Double Bassist, Winter 2005/6, England, from a review of CD " Cathedral vol.1)
"The double bassist Vitold Rek currently represents one of the most cultivated players of his instrument whatsoever. Rek's bass always sounds like noble, rare wood." (Ulrich Olshausen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,1999,Germany)
"he has become unique and his sound unmistakable within the European music scene." (Klaus Mümpfer, Jazz Podium , Dec. 1996, Germany)
"Rek is every inch a virtuoso; he has a melodicity, lyricism and sensitivity of sound-colour which cannot be found in any other bassist" (Robert Buczek, Jazz Forum, 3/2004, Poland)
"Vitold Rek's bass playing is superb. He has perfect intonation, a warm, singing tone, and effortlessly switches between the different idioms of jazz, free improvisation, extended playing techniques and composed music." (Jean Martin, Double Bassist Magazine, Winter 2003, England)