Cree

Biography
Cree is a Polish blues / rock band that was formed in 1993. Its name comes from the Cree, a First Nations tribe in Canada. The founder was Sebastian Riedel (guitar, vocals, harmonica) —incidentally the son of Ryszard Riedel, the lead singer of the legendary group Jam (Dżam) —and he was joined by Sylwester Kramek (guitar) and Adrian Fuchs (percussion). The band did not really go anywhere until 1997, at which point they started performing at music festivals, where audiences embraced them.

Cree released its first album, self-titled, in 1998. By that point the band's membership had already changed a little, and the instrumentation on that first album was surprisingly varied, including a Hammond organ as well as the usual suite of instruments. After a few more years of recording and touring, Cree was lucky enough to be joined by legendary Polish bassist Jerzy "Coffee" ("Kawa") Kawalek, best known for playing in the band Bush. They released a second very different album with Kawalek, this time avoiding the big record labels, and everything was going smoothly for the band.

But in 2003 there were major changes. The worst was the death of Piece from laryngeal cancer. Krzysztof Głuch, the keyboard player, who had been in the band since almost the very beginning, had decided to leave the band not long before this. With so much damage to its membership, it's impressive that Cree soldiered on, and they did in good form, finding new avenues of publicity and continuing to draw new listeners.

Today, the band has released seven albums — the most recent,  Heartbreaker  (no Polish name), came out in 2015. The band currently consists of original members Ridel and Kramek, and Lucjan Gryszka (bass guitar), Tomasz Kwiatkowski (percussion), and Adam Lomania (keyboards).