Basia

After several years performing with the pop outfit Matt Bianco, itself an offshoot of Blue Rondo à la Turk, Polish vocalist Basia Trzetrzelewska stepped out on her own in 1987. Teaming once more with Matt Bianco’s Danny White for musical guidance, she shaped a refined cocktail jazz-pop sound that first appeared on her debut album, Time and Tide. Bolstered by the singles “New Day for You” and “Time and Tide,” the record scored strongly across Europe and the United States, where it earned platinum certification. Her follow-up, London Warsaw New York, arrived in 1990 and matched that commercial momentum, whereas the 1994 release Sweetest Illusion found far less traction with listeners.

Clear Horizon: The Best of Basia surfaced in 1998 and stood as her sole output for an extended stretch, as the loss of her mother and several close friends momentarily dimmed her creative drive. Encouraged by former bandmates Danny White and Mark Reilly to participate in a reunited Matt Bianco, she rejoined the group in 2004 and recorded Matt’s Mood. Turning her attention back to solo work, she issued It’s That Girl Again with White’s assistance in early 2009; the comeback effort climbed into the Top Ten on the U.S. jazz charts and achieved platinum status in Poland. She next appeared in 2011 on the live set From Newport to London: Greatest Hits Live... and More, recorded in Łódź, Poland, and supplemented by several new studio tracks, among them an acoustic rendering of her 2009 song “There’s a Tear.” After another extended break, she again collaborated with White on Butterflies, her fifth studio album, which emerged in 2018.