The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and vocalist Margo Staniszewska (known professionally as Margo S). Her new album Ashes & Diamonds, recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn with David Kikoski, Stacy Dillard, Ricky Rodriguez, David Hawkins, Spike Wilner, Stefano Battaglia, and Leandro Pellegrino, was released 4 April via Truth Revolution Recording Collective. Links to purchase the album and to her website can be found at the end of this article.
Polish-born vocalist Margo Staniszewska, who performs as Margo S, has travelled a long road to arrive at her debut for Truth Revolution Recording Collective. Classically trained in her home country and a onetime opera singer on New York’s biggest stages, she ultimately left that discipline behind in favour of the immediacy and risk of jazz. Ashes & Diamonds marks her emergence as a serious composer and bandleader rooted in two musical worlds.
The album folds her Polish identity into the New York sound she’s absorbed over two decades. Poetry by Cyprian Norwid and Adam Asnyk provides source material alongside original lyrics, while a ‘Jazz Polonaise’ reworks a national dance form into a modern, swinging framework. The sessions move between languages and lineages but stay centred on a clear, direct vocal presence.
In conversation, Staniszewska spoke about finding her voice after opera, building community in New York, and carrying Polish culture into new musical territory.
UKJN: Tell me a bit about where you grew up.
MS: I’m from southeast Poland, near the Ukrainian border – a town called Jarosław, near Rzeszów. It’s like a mini Kraków, a city from the 11th century that used to be on the Silk Road from China to Western Europe. There’s so much culture, and everything’s renovated and modern now. People still imagine Poland as grey and sad, but it’s gorgeous.
UKJN: Do you have loved ones affected by the war in Ukraine?
MS: No, thankfully no. It’s about 100 kilometres away, not right on the border, and I don’t have family there. Of course I hope it never comes closer.
UKJN: You mentioned working on your accent.
MS: Yes, I take accent-reduction classes. Some people tell me, “Oh, it’s cute,” but I don’t agree. If I want to be treated as a serious singer – and I sing words – I should sound professional. I want to have a good American accent because that’s how you get work and are understood. I’m not an instrumentalist; I say the words, so the accent matters.
UKJN: Do you ever feel like an outsider in New York?
MS: Never. I came here fifteen years ago, and New York always welcomed me. Maybe it’s because I came with a positive attitude. In Western Europe I felt more of that “go back to your country” vibe. But I never felt unwelcome here.
UKJN: Is it harder to shape your accent when you’re speaking or when you’re singing?
MS: Speaking is harder. Singing comes naturally because we grew up hearing American music everywhere; that’s the mainstream in Europe. We already have those sounds in our ears, but speaking is trickier.
UKJN: How did you end up on the Truth Revolution Recording Collective label?
MS: I recorded the album more than a year ago at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn with David Kikoski, Stacy Dillard, Ricky Rodriguez, David Hawkins – all friends I play gigs with. After finishing, I just went on Google, found Truth Revolution, and sent it to them. They loved it and wanted to release it. They’re great people and musicians. I mainly worked with Zaccai Curtis by phone and email; I didn’t even meet him in person until after the release when I saw him play at Smalls. He’s amazing. They designed the cover, asked for my input, and stuck to every plan we made. I’m really happy with them.
UKJN: You’ve said Ashes & Diamonds is very personal. How so?
MS: The songs came out of more than ten years in New York. ‘New York City Streets’ was written during the pandemic. everything was so empty, like from an apocalyptic movie, walking down Sixth Avenue with those huge buildings and no people. I thought, no, this is not over; New York will live again. So I wrote that song as hope.
‘Fight for Life’ is for my son and the doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was born without a vein connecting his heart to his lungs, so they kept him alive with prostaglandin in the NICU until surgery. Later he had meningitis and I lived for two months on a couch at Mount Sinai. He even died twice and came back. Now he’s sixteen, takes AP classes, gets straight A’s. He’s a miracle.
UKJN: That’s extraordinary. Tell me about some of the other songs.
MS: The title track, ‘Ashes and Diamonds’, appears in Polish and English. The poem is by Cyprian Norwid, one of our greatest nineteenth-century poets. He wrote in such a beautiful, complex Polish language – for English speakers, it’s like reading Shakespeare. The music was composed by the singer Stan Borys, who’s also on my album reciting at the end of the Polish version. It’s about being reborn from ashes to diamonds, how suffering can shape us into better people.
‘One Heart’ uses a poem by Adam Asnyk, a famous Polish poet from the early twentieth century, about love and how hard it is to find that one person meant for you.
‘Where Are You’ is my lyrics and music. It’s a heartbreak song. I’m a single mother, so I’ve lived through some of those.
‘Jazz Polonaise’ is an instrumental I wrote during the pandemic. I live in an artists’ building, and we had stoop jams outside. I was playing with Brazilian musicians like Leandro Pellegrino and Eduardo Bello, and I thought: everyone loves Brazilian music. What if I combined it with a Polish rhythm? So I wrote a thirty-two-bar tune: part A in 3/4 Polonaise rhythm, part B swinging in 4/4, then back to the Polonaise.
UKJN: How did the album title come about?
MS: That was Stan Borys’s idea. There’s also the Andrzej Wajda film by that name, but our title comes from his song, which I reimagined in a jazz context. He’s like the Polish Frank Sinatra.
UKJN: Tell me about the band.
MS: I had some incredible players: David Kikoski on piano, Ricky Rodriguez on bass, David Hawkins on drums, Stacy Dillard on saxophone, and Leandro Pellegrino on guitar for a few tracks. Spike Wilner plays piano on two standards, ‘Stormy Weather’ and ‘Don’t Explain’, with Stefano Battaglia on bass. Those were relaxed, soulful sessions. I’m honoured these musicians wanted to play with me.
UKJN: What’s next for you?
MS: I’m planning a second album for next year. I’m still deciding which direction to take – maybe standards, maybe my own songs, maybe a simple duo or trio record. I’ve already spoken with Zaccai and the label, and they want to release it. Theo Bleckmann is my master and mentor; I tell him often how much I appreciate him. So now I’m on a Grammy-winning label, which feels like a good sign.
UKJN: How did you move from opera to jazz?
MS: I studied opera in Poland and earned my master’s at Brooklyn College. I sang with New York Lyric Opera at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Space. But I never really loved opera, not in my heart. I always loved jazz, went to jazz clubs, listened to jazz. So I quit opera completely and began studying with Theo Bleckmann. He told me I transitioned from classical to jazz faster than any student he’d had. Classical training gave me a foundation – technique, discipline, knowledge of harmony – and jazz made everything more soulful and human.
