Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last
From catacombs to the free society
- the Story of Polish Jazz
According to a wife’s tail Jazz originated in Poland:
"...people from all over the world were coming to Bialy
Dunajec, a town in the Tatry mountains, to learn about the Polish
Highlander’s music...even the Blacks from Africa came one day to
learn of the new music. A famous Polish Highlander philosopher Wladek
Trybunia-Tutka taught them how to use fiddles and play basses. They
mastered it quickly, but a horrible accident happened - on their
way back home from the Polish mountains to Africa, the Blacks encountered
a storm, and all of their instruments were washed ashore. They arrived
back home having only bows, with no fiddles or basses. This is how
Jazz (or “Black/African music”) was born. Jazz music is actually
the music of the Polish Highlanders; just without the fiddles and
basses. At the time, the Blacks just struck any kind of wood using
a variety of objects, trying to keep a rhythm. However, they could
not re-capture the notes, since all their instruments were washed
ashore."Audio
Clip: Kapela Masniakow z Koscielisk (Goralska Muzyka) (Jozef Tischenr - The History of Philosophy According to Polish
Highlanders : )
"...do Bialego Dunjaca ciagali ludzie ze swiata, coby
ucyc goralskiej muzyki...Przyjechalu nawet Murzyni, cheba nawet z Jamajki.
Wlodek kozol im skrzypce i basy zrobic, a pote ik naucyl syckiego. Ale stalo sie
nescescie. Kie sie wracali, chycila ik na morzu okrutno burza i instrumenty sie
im potopily. Wrocili sie do chalupy ze samymi smyckami. I z tego narodzila sie
Muzrzynska muzyka. Murzynska muzyka to tyz jest muzyka goralsko, telo ze bez
skrzypiec i basow. Oni ino smyckami bijom do rytmu w co po padnie, cy w drzewo,
cy w deske, ale nuty wygrac ni mogom, bo instrumenty majom potopione..."
(Jozef Tischenr - Historia Filozofii po Goralsku)
The Origins of Polish Jazz
In case if you did not get the Polish Joke above
- Gorale (Polish Highlanders) did not created Jazz - Black Americans
did. And they did it with a good help from European, Jewish, Cubans,
and other emigrants who made America their own country. Jazz is
like America - coherent system made of many different and independent
parts. Jazz is without a doubt one the most important living art
forms of today, and perhaps the greatest musical contribution to
world's cultural legacy America has ever made. The art form that
represents America at its best. The art form that embraced an American
spirit of improvisation, independence, multi-culture and race acceptance,
resourcefulness, ingenuousness and cosmopolitanism. But ideas respect
no borders and Jazz has no boundaries either, so it has conquered
the world and become a truly global art form.
So what is Polish Jazz? Perhaps we should first ask: what is Jazz?
An improvisational art? A dialog between musician and instrument,
music and listener? Or just music? It is difficult to point out
what would distinguish Polish Jazz from any other "national
school" of Jazz art. Slavic melodiousness and sensibility,
late-romantic models of expression, dramatic lyricism? The white
man blues? Or perhaps the creative incorporation of the Polish folk
idiom with its scales, melodies and rhythms? However, is there anything
such as a distinct "national" character in Jazz at all?
After all, there is no American Jazz, neither German, nor Japanese,
nor Scottish, nor even Polish Jazz anymore - what's left is just
music with Jazz soul. The mere existence or indeed success of any
particular "national school" of Jazz, such as Polish Jazz,
is directly related to triumph of American Jazz and its inspiration
for fans from all over the world. Today, many artists identify themselves
with the Jazz essence. You will find that such spirit is very much
alive and kicking among Jazz artists worldwide, especially among
the ones with Polish heritage.
What makes Polish Jazz and its history so unique is its role in
the quest for democracy and freedom by the Polish society. During
the 20 century, Jazz was in avant-garde of democratic processes
in Poland, in fact - a democratic process itself in the country
with (most of the time) no democratic institutions and with no political
freedom. The growth of Polish Jazz has been unparallel to development
of Jazz in any other country, but very interestingly shows many
striking resemblances to the struggle of the original Jazz founders
- Black African Americans, and their faight for the civil rights,
and the pursuit of the Freedom.
