Marek Bałata (Bah-wah-tah) is probably the premier maie vocalist in all of Eastern Europe in the realm of improvised music. His wide ranging creativity has also engaged him deeply in visual arts (graphic art, audio-visual performance) and theatre ( The Magician of Lublin by I.B.Singer and Bloody Wedding by F.G.Lorca ). He has performed and recorded with the great Polish jazz musicians: Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Jagodzinski, Slawomir Kulpowicz, Krzysztof Scieranski, Tomasz Szukalski, Hennyk Miskiewicz... and has also performed in Poland with original (USA/PL) formation (vocals and bass only) CANTABILE IN JAZZ featuring Urszula Dudziak, Michele Hendricks, Judy Niemack and Anthony Jackson or Mariusz Bogdanowicz and Adam Skrzypek. Balata has produced a CD of his own compositions entitled "Voice Paintings" (1994), in which he has taken the rich, folkloric roots of his native Krakow and merged them with his considerable understanding ofAmerican blues and bebop and the harmonic language of F.Chopin. He has a daring virtuosity and imagination, a startlingly wide range and fiawless intonation. Singing or even rapping in both English and Polish, Balata has a gift for both languages and tone colour. He is also a founder of TRILOGY with great American pianist Art Lande and Austrian fiute-player Gunter Wehinger. The group`s 1997 tour in Poland concluded with a brilliant concert broadcast nationally at the Polish Radio Studio in Warsaw. This resulted in the trio`s CD "Trilogy" released in 1998 on the GOWl label in Poland. And then in April 1999 the group had successful tour in USA (California and Colorado) with special guest Paul McCandless at Yoshi 's - Oakland. He came back to America in 2003 but as a soloist of the Oratorio THE LORD CALLS US performed in Chicago at Orchestra Hall and Toronto and again in 2005 he came back to Toronto to sing at The John Paul ll Legacy concert with The Oratorio DEVINE MERCY at Roy Thomson Hall and also in Chicago in 2007. ln july 2007 he came back to Toronto to sing at the big concert Come a little closer...benefits University of Toronto Epilepsy Research Program. From 1990 The Best Jazz Vocalist in the Readers Poll of the Jazz Forum Magazine.
Marek Balata has also performed with great artist as: Billy Hart, Steve Davis, Ernie Adams, Peter Madse, Jeanfrancois Prins, Patricia Beysens, Jack Van Poll, Heinrich Von Kalne, Marco Piludu, Andy Manndorff, Klezmokum, Songlines and m.o...