Słowik, Ferdynand

Born in Kamesznica [SW of Żywiec]; According to Pilecki "he started playing after World War II. He had a Gajdy after the well-known musician Jan Kiełbasa [i.e. Jan Fiedor "Kiełbasa"; ws] of Kamesznica. It is the oldest of all instruments [i.e. of this type; ws] found in the region"; Katarzyna & Maciej Szymonowiczowie, however, give a detailed description of a Gajdy that was made in 1789, stating that "it is, according to tradition, the oldest Gajdy that has survived to this day. It is owned and played by a Czesław Węglarz (*1957) of Cisiec, who bought it, in 1982, in Kamesznica, from the family of piper Jan Kiełbasa, who had played the instrument in the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately the maker of the instrument is unknown"; NB: The attribution "the oldest surviving" clearly refers to one and the same instrument; Because it seems rather unlikely that Czesław Węglarz could have bought the instrument from Jan Kiełbasa’s family, if it was already (and in 1982 probably still was) in the possession of Ferdynand Słowik, I have the impression that Pilecki’s statement is correct…