Witold Szczurek has been played on NTS in shows including Andy Votel's Randomonium , featured first on 4 December 2016. Songs played include Hey, Hullo.

Witold Szczurek aka Vitold Rek - double bassist, composer and educator - was born in 1955 in Rzeszów; south-east Poland. He studied classical double bass at the Cracow Academy of Music when Krzysztof Penderecki was rector there. His playing unites jazz influences with classical and East European folk elements, with a focus on live performance and composition. Festival appearances include Montreux Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz / Den Haag, Willisau Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, ISB Double Bass Convention USA, Mexico Jazz Festival, Banlieus Bleues Festival in Paris and the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw among many others. Concerts have taken him also to Africa/Mosambique, Cuba and Mexico. He has performed in Purcell Room in London and in Olympia Paris.

Charlie Mariano, John Tchicai, Albert Mangelsdorff, Karl Berger, Tomasz Stanko, Günter Baby Sommer, Dom Um Romao, Peter Giger, Emil Mangelsdorff, Gerd Dudek, Heinz Sauer, Ralf Hübner, Bob Degen, Christof Lauer, Makaya Ntshoko and Shlomo Carlebach have featured among his key musical partners. He collaborates with the Frankfurt Radio HR Jazz Ensemble.

Vitold also enjoys his work with German writers, combining spoken poetry with his own solo performance. He works closely with the poet Johann P. Tammen and other partners have included Volker Braun, Oskar Ansull, Sarah Kirsch, Kito Lorenc.

He teaches jazz double bass and coaches ensembles at both the Hochschule für Musik, Mainz and Hochschule für Musik, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

In 2008 Vitold Rek was honored twice: with Tomasz Stanko’s 5 CD album "1970-1975-1984-1986-1988" - Platinum Prize in Poland - and with Emil Mangelsdorff’s CD "Blues Forever" - Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2008 in Germany.

In November 2008 Vitold Rek performed as soloist the premiere of Jazz Concerto Grosso (composed by Piotr Wrobel) for double bass, flute (soloist Jadwiga Kotnowska) and symphony orchestra during the Polish Chamber Music Festival in Warsaw.

Book appearances:

"Das Jazz Buch" Joachim Ernst Berendt/Günter Heusmann (Fischer Verlag 1953-2005, Germany)

"Jazz Lexikon" Martin Künzler (Rowohlt Verlag 2002, Germany)

"New Grove Dictionary of Jazz" Barry Kernfeld/Wolfram Knauer (Grove, England 2001)

"Der Frankfurt Sound" Jürgen Schwab (SocietätsVerlag 2004, Germany)

"Encyklopedia Muzyki Popularnej, Jazz" D.Piatkowski (Atena 2000, Poland)

"Leksykon Polskiej Muzyki Rozrywkowej" R.Wolanski (Morex 1995, Poland)

"Encyklopedia Rzeszowa" (RS Druk, 2004, Poland)