Not everyone knows that Jerzy Wasowski – an artist widely associated with the Kabaret Starszych Panów (Elderly Gentlemen's Cabaret) – devoted much of his energy to writing songs for children. He treated this part of his work with no less care or attention. In his songs for the youngest, to be performed by the NFM Girls’ Choir and the NFM Boys’ Choir, he took care to familiarise adolescent listeners and performers with beauty, elegance, and harmony. The composer intended them to become an important point of reference for music lovers later in their lives.

This important part of Wasowski’s work was a response to the cultural crisis he had diagnosed. In an interview, he said: “We often raise alarms: about polluted air, contaminated water, the waste of trees. I think it would be worthwhile to issue an appeal to save young people’s aesthetic sensitivity.” In keeping with this postulate, the musical layer of his works for children is amazingly sophisticated. The self-taught composer was, after all, an undisputed master of melody, characterised by brilliant intuition. His songs, often set to lyrics by distinguished authors, not only entertain but also discreetly teach the basics of the language of sound. Although he modestly described himself as a craftsman, his work was a form of art. There was no room for chance or cheapness in his oeuvre: each composition is precisely crafted and intended to stir the imagination and instill sensitivity to the nuances heard.

Jerzy Wasowski is remembered as a songwriter. In total, he wrote around seven hundred songs. He was immortalised by those composed for the television programme Kabaret Starszych Panów. We all know the titles: Don't Go Away, The Joyful Life of an Old Man, Addio Tomatoes, and I Will Curse You. Wojciech Młynarski, one of his collaborators, recalled: “One of the (…) musicians once said that if Jerzy Wasowski had lived in the USA, his name would have been George Gershwin.”