The former musician of the band Maanam is dead. Krzysztof Olesiñski died at the age of 70

“We are sad to announce that Krzysztof Olesiński, former bassist of the band Maanam, Ryszard’s brother, died suddenly in London yesterday at the age of 70. We express our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones,” we read in the Ex Maanam profile post on Facebook. The information about the artist’s death was confirmed by the band’s manager Paweł Jucha in an interview with the Onet portal.

Krzysztof Olesinski is dead. Who was the musician?

The man was born in 1953, and he took his first steps in the world of music together with his brother Ryszard Olesiński, with whom he founded the Piknik band. The band was appreciated and in 1978 won the Audience Award at the Krakow Jazz Juniors festival.

A year later, he started working with Maanam, with whom he performed at the Polish Song Festival in Opole in June 1980. He participated in the recording of the band’s debut album, co-created the music for the film “Wielka Majówka”, and then in the same year he joined the jazz band Laboratorium, replacing Krzysztof Ścierański.

At the end of 1990, the group disbanded, and a year later he started working with the Blue Painting group. In 1992, however, he returned to Maanam, where he was the bass player until 2003, when together with his brother, guitarist Ryszard Olesiński and drummer Paweł Markowski, he decided to leave the band.

In the history of the band, he worked on ten albums of the famous group: “Maanam” (1980), “Ballady” (1993), “Róża” (1994), “Kolekcjoner” (1995), “Bed” (1996), “Hamlet” 1997, “Rockandrolls” (1997), “Key” (1998), “Hotel Nirvana” (2001), “Maanamania” (1993).

The band Złoty Manaam, which he co-founded, aroused mixed feelings

In 2005, together with his brother and other musicians, he recorded a co-author album “Roots” with texts by Zbigniew Ksią¿ek. A year later, he decided to go to London, where he took the position of artistic director of Telewizja Polska TVPL. In 2008, the band “Złoty Maanam” was established when Marek Jackowski stopped playing with Kora. The creation of the band caused a lot of controversy, because a singer other than Olga Jackowska was supposed to sing in it.

When Kora died in 2018, Krzysztof Olesiński decided to reactivate the band because the members of the Złoty Manaam band felt obliged to continue playing the repertoire of the legendary group, because, as they wrote, they had a “moral duty” to do so. In this way, they also wanted to pay tribute to the works of the late Marek Jackowski and Kora.

In 2019, the band changed its name to Ex Maanam, which was the result of an agreement with Kamil Sipowicz. The group then parted ways with vocalist Karolina Leszko, and her place was taken by Aga Bieńkowska, who continues to tour with the group to this day.

The band is to play during the “Wianki nad Wisłą” event, which will take place on June 24 in Warsaw. The motto of the concert is: “KORA. I came into the world for this”, which is a tribute to the work of the legend of Polish music – Kora Jackowska. However, due to the death of one of the musicians, it is not certain whether the group will perform. So far, the team has not commented on it.