An interview with Leszek Cichoński – Polish blues-rock guitarist, vocalist, composer, and arranger, author of guitar textbooks and educational programs for TVP, lecturer in music workshops, creator of the Thanks Jimi Festival and the Guitar World Record. He has collaborated with artists such as Tadeusz Nalepa and Wojciech Karolak. He has been promoting the Uni-Vibe (Uniting Vibration of Music) concept for seven years. The artist has just been nominated for the title of Leader by Vocation in the Leader of Art category.
Were you born a leader?
Not really (laughter). As a teenager, I was rather shy. I sometimes say I’m a musician by accident, but I truly became a leader out of a spiritual need. It happened spontaneously, like almost everything else in my life. I didn’t plan it. It just happened. Today I know one thing – what gives me the greatest joy isn’t playing itself, but connecting people through music, through the idea of playing together. Guitars and „Hey Joe” were the beginning, but what grew from it is something much more important. Every time I get chills down my spine when thousands of people raise their guitars.
What is the phenomenon of the Guitar World Record?
It’s about the collectively generated emotion. The sudden disappearance of the division between stage and audience. All participants become performers. They play and experience the music. It’s an invaluable experience and, at the same time, the unique value of our festival.
The first Guitar World Record took place in 2003. I expected maybe a hundred people, but 558 guitarists showed up. I remember the exact moment when they spontaneously raised their guitars for the first time and I saw something in their eyes: joy, excitement, that „something” that can’t be planned. Years later, I called it UNI-VIBE – Uniting Vibration of Music.
So the record isn’t the most important thing?
Actually, it has never been. The record is just a pretext. The most important thing is what happens between people. The energy we feel together. That’s why I often say it’s not a concert – it’s a „sociological-energetic” phenomenon (laughter).
Where did this idea come from?
From a very simple experience – a dozen or so people playing „Hey Joe” together at a blues workshop in Zakrzewo. I felt an energy I hadn’t known before. There wasn’t a vision of a thousand guitars on the mountain, but some important message clearly stayed in my heart. And I thought: we need to play this with more guitars, and then – let’s do it again. And we’ve been playing it every May 1st for 24 years now.
Your version of „Hey Joe” is different from the original…
Yes, I wrote new lyrics because the original lyrics are about violence. I always felt an unpleasant dissonance that everyone, including young people and children, was playing „Hey Joe” and enjoying it, while Joe shot his wife and fled to Mexico. No, no – it can’t be like that… I believe you can always choose a different path.
In my version, Joe throws the gun into the river. He chooses life. He chooses happiness with his woman. That was important to me – to show that each of us can take this one step to change our entire lives.
Was that the beginning of the idea for Uni-Vibe?
Yes. Very specific. I was driving early in the morning to Wrocław’s Market Square for Rekord and singing to myself a new version of „Hey Joe – New Story,” in which Joe runs with flowers to his wife because she’s just given birth to three boys – I held up three fingers. And suddenly, an epiphany struck. After all, those are two connected letters, U and V – for Uniting Vibration. That is, Uni-Vibe. Quite often, I have a feeling of being guided from „On High,” and then I felt that what we do has a deeper meaning. That it’s not just music. It’s an important message. From that moment, the Uni-Vibe logo and idea were born, as was the whole idea of this energy as something real – something that could be built, developed, and passed on.
Was the pandemic a test of this idea?
A huge one. We couldn’t meet physically, we were confined to our homes, terrified and intimidated, everything suddenly came to a head. And then we in Wrocław said: we’re going to play!
We obtained permission from the Mayor for a concert without an audience and created the Online Guitar Record. Michael Jackson’s guitarist Jennifer Batten, Jan Borysewicz, Marek Napiórkowski, Marek Raduli, and almost all the top Polish guitarists played with us. People all over Poland and abroad played from their homes, on their balconies, and connected with us online. They sent photos and videos with the Uni-Vibe logo. And something extraordinary happened – despite the distance, a true sense of unity emerged between us all.
We received hundreds of messages from people that this gave us hope. That this sign, this gesture – the Uni-Vibe – and the knowledge that we are together really triggers something within them. And Jennifer Baten said about the Uni-Vibe: „The World Needs this Sign” and recorded a beautiful video about it on YouTube.
Your work is not only a record, but also concrete artistic achievements… Three of your albums were nominated for Fryderyk Awards. I really appreciate these awards. The album „Sobą Gram” is very personal, it tells a story about life, about reflection.
I’m talking about what I really feel. The lyrics to the title track were written by Jacek Cygan.
The album „Thanks Jimi Symphonic,” recorded with the symphony orchestra of the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, was also very important – it’s the first and only album in the world with arrangements of Hendrix’s works for symphony orchestra. It was a huge challenge and a wonderful artistic adventure.
You also received awards – the silver and bronze Gloria Artis medals.
I consider this a recognition of the path I have consistently followed for years.
35 years ago, you developed and published a textbook with cassettes that completely changed guitar education in Poland.
The „Blues-Rock Guitar Workshop” course was born out of a heartfelt need – I wanted to impart the knowledge I myself had once sought. Thousands of young people began their guitar journey with this textbook.
Your students are now renowned artists themselves…
And that is one of the most beautiful things and the source of my immense satisfaction. Many of them wouldn’t be called my students, but my textbook appeared at the beginning of their guitar journey and completely changed their lives. My Workshop has been used by, among others, Piotr Kupicha (Feel), Piotr Łukaszewski (IRA), Piotr Lekki from TSA, Robert Drężek from Luxtorpeda, Andrzej Domżoł, and even the Russian virtuoso Roman Miroshnichenko. I’m now planning to revisit this course. Even though the days of cassette tapes are long gone, the „Blues-Rock Guitar Workshop” still generates enormous interest thanks to its effective educational method.
And your first guitar?
I used to steal my older brother’s guitar and regularly detune it. My parents noticed that this was causing domestic conflicts and bought me my first small Defil case – that’s how it all started. And in 1975, I went to the German Democratic Republic to buy my first electric guitar – a Musima – it was shaped like a startocaster, so I dreamed of having just such an instrument. I tried many guitars from this brand, but ultimately chose the Czech Jolana, which, despite its completely different construction, played brilliantly – it simply spoke to me in a human voice. I still play this guitar in the „VIVA SANTANA” project with Jose Torres.
Who taught you how to play guitar?
All the most famous giants – BB King, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, Carlos Santana, and others. Back then, we’d record the most interesting bands from Radio 3 onto a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Later, when a friend got a cassette player, we’d record the reels onto a cassette player – there was plenty to listen to back then.
What kind of art is music?
It’s immaterial; it’s like the soul; you can’t touch it, yet it has a profound impact on us. The same goes for its reception. It’s „immaterial.” Every year, thousands of guitarists meet in Wrocław’s Market Square to play together and experience this phenomenon. This shared experience shows how close we are, even though we’re often very different. No arguments can affect us, because we’re beyond that, connected by the sound of the guitars and the energy of the Uni-Vibe.
Family is very important in your life…
For me, family is the foundation of fulfillment and happiness in life… maintaining a balance between passion and being close to another person is a real art, and I’ve been working on it my whole life. The title track from the album „I play myself” is precisely about this kind of relationship – Jacek Cygan hit the nail on the head with his lyrics. Only recently have I noticed that there were no coincidences in my life – it simply couldn’t have been otherwise. I remember the year 1970 clearly. I went to summer camp then, I was 12 years old, so I was just a kid when I met a blue-eyed girl, a year younger than me – Jola – and I just flew away (laughter). I lived in Wrocław, she in Złotoryja, so there was practically no chance of meeting. Five years later, when I went to the GDR to buy that guitar, I thought maybe this would be the perfect opportunity to visit my childhood crush, and so I did. Later, in my final year of high school, Jola invited me to New Year’s Eve. I went and…the earth simply shook. Looking back on it now, it seems like some angelic beings were with us, and even then my soul knew it was definitely Her. Now, we’ve been married for 43 years, have three children, four grandchildren, but most importantly, there’s still a spark between us. 😊
Do you remember the name of your first band?
Yes. We were called Colegium and we played our first concerts at the Index student club. Back then, I didn’t even know I’d be playing. Then there was CDN – by the way, Paweł Kukiz’s first band. It was just fun playing music. Jola and I were planning to get married at the same time, and that’s where I faced a serious dilemma. After all, I had to finish university. With a master’s degree in engineering, I was entering adulthood. My father was a legal counsel at the prison administration, and I was supposed to become a sanitary inspector there, with a „bright future” guaranteed. But life sometimes plays tricks on me. My fiancée married a serious, promising young man – a Master of Science in Engineering – and just four days after the wedding, she was married to a rock musician. 😊
Did you write lyrics too?
Rarely. Usually, inspiration came from various life situations I had to deal with. I actually sat down to work on my fully original album 13 years ago. „Sobą gram” is a concept album. The songs collected there are the result of reflections and questions related to life and its problems. The first title says it all – „What’s on your mind?” – in times of global manipulation, it’s important to „scan this computer” from time to time, and the second, „Kim jestem?” (Who am I?), is about love; it’s a dedication to my wife, with whom I spent so many years. The music on this album was a bit of therapy for me; thanks to it, I felt like I’d managed to find the long-sought balance in my life. Today, I’m a fulfilled, happy husband, father, and grandfather. And I still feel the need, or rather the need, to share good vibes with others. I think that’s where the idea for Uni-Vibe came from.
What does Uni-Vibe mean to you today?
Today, I see Uni-Vibe not just as a single event experience, but as a broad idea that’s taking on a life of its own and has the potential to reach far beyond Wrocław and Poland. We’re seeing more and more signals from various places around the world, people are playing with us online, and there’s interest in places like San Francisco and Japan, and I feel like this could be the beginning of something bigger. Uni-Vibe could become a movement that, in a simple way—without big slogans—truly changes things for the better between people.
Your career is also connected to television.
That’s true. I remember it happened around the time I returned from concerts in the US with Tadeusz Nalepa. Back then, I had plans to develop a school for guitarists.
And then television became interested in you.
That was 1995, so a few years later. I recorded a total of 52 episodes for TVP Edukacyjna. I invited artists like… Jurek Styczyński, Marek Raduli, Wojtek Pilichowski, Grzegorz Skawiński, and Janek Borysewicz. These were very popular programs and inspired many young people to pick up the guitar.
Have you ever said you were changing the world?
I said that „together we’re changing the world for the better.” It might sound lofty, but it’s true. Indeed, the experience of playing together at the Giuitar Record in Wrocław raises the world’s vibrations. This year, in addition to „Hey Joe,” we’ll be playing Bob Marley’s hit „ONE LOVE” with his guitarist Al Anderson. I want this message to reach the world from Wrocław – ONE LOVE, ONE VIBE, UNI-VIBE! 😊
If thousands of people feel this unity for a moment, something changes. And if they take it with them into their lives, more changes than we realize.
Why are you a leader by vocation?
I wasn’t born a leader, and for a long time I didn’t think of myself that way – rather, subsequent situations naturally placed me in a position where I had to lead something and take responsibility for it. Over time, I realized that when a space for collective action appears, I instinctively create it, develop it, and unite people around an idea, even if I hadn’t planned it beforehand. So if I have to say why I call it a calling today, it’s probably because it’s not a choice – it’s something that just happens and leads me exactly where I need to be.
Wojciech Skowroński
Beata Sekuła
