Banana Boat

Banana Boat is one of the most engaging and recognizable of the “neo-shanty” bands in Poland.

Banana Boat is a Polish a cappella sextet, authoring and performing original songs representing the genre of neo-shanties. Being one of the pioneers of the new genre, the group retains its simultaneous focus on contemporary interpretations of traditional sea shanties and maritime music. Owing to its characteristic six-part, jazzy harmony, departing from the traditional sound of the music of the sea, the group has become one of the emblems of what the international artists of the maritime stage have informally come to dub as the Polish style maritime song. With maritime music constantly in the focus of its activity, since 2004, Banana Boat has also been experimenting with other musical genres, including popular and jazz compositions, inviting other artists to participate in individual projects.

Today, Banana Boat consists of the following musicians:

Maciej Jędrzejko|Maciej “YenJCo.” Jędrzejko, the group’s founder, frontman and leader;
Paweł “Konik” Konieczny, the formation’s co-founder, composer and high tenor;
Paweł Jędrzejko (“Synchro”), the author of the majority of the band’s original lyrics and performer of bari-tenor parts;
Tomasz “Mundry” Czarny, the Banana Boat’s arranger, composer and bari-tenor;
Michał “Ociec” Maniara, the manager of the Art Agency BananaArt.Pl Art and performer of baritone parts;
Piotr “Qdyś” Wiśniewski, the group’s bass singer.

The present-day Banana Boat members are active yachtsmen: Paweł Jędrzejko (formerly a professional navigator), holds an ocean-going yachtmaster’s license; his younger brother Maciej, the group’s founder, is an ocean skipper, while other Banana Boat members all hold offshore licenses, which largely contributes to the positive reception of the Banana Boat songs. Professionally, the Banana Boat musicians represent such disciplines as medicine and dentistry, banking and law, trade and academic literary and culture studies.