ME MYSELF AND I - AND THEIR “VOICE-CONTROLLED” MUSIC IN SKOKIE

What’s your favorite musical instrument? If you said “the human voice,” you would have loved the Polish a capella trio Me Myself and I, which made its U.S. debut on Sunday, April 29, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.

Each member of the group takes one aspect of a musical work — melody, harmony, rhythm — and conveys with voice alone what most bands need an array of instruments to express. 

Singers Magdalena Pasierska and Michal Majeran are the core of Me Myself and I. The third performer is a beatboxer, or vocal percussionist, drawn from a standing group of session musicians from Poland and other parts of Europe. GIZMO (Karol Gizewski) performed at the Skokie concert.

Me Myself and I got started six years ago. Pasierska, whose background is in jazz, was already making a name for herself as an innovative vocalist when Majeran, a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, heard her improvising in a jazz club with a beatbox artist in 2006, and proposed they join forces.

While the trio’s improvisational style places it solidly in the jazz tradition, listeners will also hear hip-hop, rock, blues, reggae and classical influences in its music. Me Myself and I is also always happy to electrify, fortify, multiply, mix and remix its vocal effects.

The trio has appeared at festivals in Europe with The Beastie Boys, Michael Bolton, Manhattan Transfer, Kenny G, Chris Botti, Bobby McFerrin and the Tomasz Stanko Quartet.

In 2010, the group reached the finals of Poland’s “Got Talent” program, where they won many fans with two of their own compositions and a spirited version of a Chopin mazurka.

 Me Myself and I has a brand-new album, its second, Do Not Cover. The group’s first album was Takadum! 

The Me Myself and I concert in Skokie was the latest presentation of Up to Sound, a Chicago-based independent presenter of international music that has a special commitment to showcasing Polish artists and culture.