Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last
From catacombs to the free society - the Story of Polish Jazz

Chapter 2: Polish Jazz in 1940's-1950's
Part 2

Milestones:

The betrayal and stalinization of Poland

Melomani

Willis Conover

Sopot Jazz Festivals (1956-1957)

Beginning of organized Jazz communities in Poland

Dave Brubeck in Poland

Leopold Tyrmand - the guru of Polish Jazz

Near the end of World War II, German forces, which have occupied Poland since 1939, were driven from Poland by the advancing Soviet Red Army. At the same time Yalta Conference secretly divided post-war Europe between Western (democratic) and Eastern (totalitarian) parts. Openly heralding the need for democracy, in facts the signatories of Yalta's agreements: American president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill, in order to appease Soviet leader Josef Stalin, surrendered Poland along with half of Europe to Moscow. Despite the protests from the legit Polish government on exile; the 200,000 man strong Polish army on exile, which along with allied forces fought Hitler's armies since 1939, was disbanded; and pro-communist provisional government in Poland sanctioned. Despite few democratic slogans and later on hypocritical slogans of "Cold War"," the West has never provided any significant support to democratic forces in de-facto Soviet occupied Poland. "The Betrayal of Poland" was then completed and the fundaments for the new European order established for next four and the half decades. Audio Clip: Polish Radio Choir - We Are building New Poland

Consequently, like the rest of the Eastern and Central Europe, Poland fell under the dominance of Stalinist Russia - and the Soviets certainly did not dig the swing! Only certain musical forms were allowed to flourish, particularly those with folk rhythm, without syncopation. One tempo was prescribed for everybody and army marching bands rose in importance. The process of political and cultural oppression intensified when Communist government "creatively" altered the results of 1949 election; and period of "Cold War" began. Jazz music was outlawed as the music of the enemy (Western Europe and the USA). In Stalinist Poland, Jazz music was banned along with modern art, decent toilet paper and the right to travel abroad. Ruled with the "iron fist" cultural policy of government excluded all forms of modern art, demanding from the artists to follow "Socialist realism" mantra, defined and redefined as he pleased by the one and only authority - Soviet leader Josef Stalin himself. Audio Clip: Polish Parliament ratifies military Warsaw Pact alliance with Soviet Union

Thankfully not everybody digged Stalin and toed the party line. Audio Clip: Polish Radio Choir - This is Our Land Young people in Poland with no taste for Russian recipes, Soviet music and political doctrines, but longing for freedom, rediscovered Jazz. Being banned and sometimes even persecuted, Jazz went underground, or, as was said, into "the catacombs". Jazz could only be played at private homes and private parties. In Poland, since late 1940s Jazz, although not officially existing, in fact it embraced the spirit of independence, nonconformity and cosmopolitanism.

One band came to dominate the hidden landscape of the Polish Jazz scene. The name of this group was Melomani ("the Music Aficionados"). The ensemble was established in 1947 from among the hippest cats of the day, including "The Founding Fathers of Polish Jazz": Dudus Matuszkiewicz (leader, saxophones, and clarinet), Andrzej Trzaskowski (piano), and Krzysztof Komeda (piano). The line-up of Melomani was complemented by Andrzej 'Idon' Wojciechowski (trumpet), Witold Kujawski (bass), and Witold 'Dentox' Sobocinski (drums). The lineup often fluctuated, and included among others:  Jeanne Johnstone, Carmen Moreno (vocal),  Andrzej Kurylewicz (piano), Leslaw Lic (clarinet), Wlodzimierz Wasio (trombone), Jerzy Tatark (bars), Alojzy Thomys (alto sax, banjo), Roman Dylag (bass), and Antoni Studzinski (drums). Many of them were students of the Lodz Film School, famous for establishing one of the leading European film movements and commonly referred to as the "Polish School." Musicians of the Melomani hung out at the Lodz YMCA, one of the few existing oases for nonconformists and independent thinkers in the Poland of late 1940s.  Having been separated from the development of Western Jazz and without any Jazz recordings or publications, Melomani played the sort of music that they thought was Jazz, such as Jelly Roll Morton and W.C. Handy. There were actually two different line-ups of Melomani: traditional and modern but the quality of the music, technical abilities of musicians and obsolete repertoire would not have met the standards of any reputable Jazz club in Western Europe or the United States at the time. But that did not matter for Melomani's fans. They embraced it because it was illegitimate and because it was theirs. A critic Elliott Simon nailed it the best: "Melomani played a series of standards with enthusiasm exceeded only by their fans’ obvious adoration... it is however, the historical circumstance - when jazz was a high energy outlet for the creativity of a culturally repressed society".  Audio Clip: Melomani - Basin Street Blues (Jazz 56 - 1st Sopot Jazz Festival)

In the meantime the new communist government in Warsaw increased its political power and the Communist Polish United Workers Party (PZPR), under Moscow's appointee Boleslaw Bierut gained complete control of Poland. Sealed by Soviet constitution of 1952, Poland become an integral part of the postwar Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Audio Clip: Polish Parliament ratifies Constitution of 1952 Of course, there was no Jazz music on the Polish radio, no Jazz records in the stores, no books and no sheet music for sale. However, there was the will, the enthusiasm and the Voice of America. Instead of listening to reports about the success of the Soviet Union and achieving heaven on earth, Jazz fans and aspiring Jazz musicians tuned their Soviet-made radios to DJ Willis Conover programs. For Polish Jazz devotees of the late 40s and early 50s Poland, Willis Conover was a musical messiah. Conover's programs allowed access to the desired alternative: the right stuff and the real thing. His contribution to Polish Jazz would never be forgotten.

After Stalin's death in 1953, the perception of Jazz in Poland began to change. Following the death of Stalinist's president Boleslaw Bierut in 1956, Audio Clip: Edward Ochab's speech at President Bierut's funeral a brief period of de-Stalinization began, raising hopes for political and economical reforms. It became acceptable to listen to Jazz, to talk about Jazz, to write about Jazz and, most importantly, to play Jazz. Polish Radio resumed its national broadcasts of the swing concerts. Official Jazz festivals began to appear in the second part of the 1950s. The first legal Jazz gathering took place in Krakow on November 1st 1954 (Zaduszki Jazzowe). Other events soon followed. The first official Jazz festival took place in Sopot in 1956 and initiated a tradition of regular Jazz festivals in Poland. "The first Sopot Jazz Festival, which took place in August 1956 is regarded as the key event in the history of Polish Jazz. It represented the culmination of the first, chaotic period in the development of Polish Jazz. It marked the full emergence of Jazz from the underground and the music's first official recognition on a major scale. It ended the "catacomb era" and launched the "time of frenzy". Jazz came out of the catacombs and immediately became recognized as a symbol of freedom and liberation from boredom and obscurantism, as well as a chance for contact, solidarity and unity with the rest of the world. This was an authentic explosion of energy and joy, often frenetic, that we remember nostalgically even now, at a time when we miss even more the burst of the youthful energy of that generation." (Janusz Szprot).

Polish Jazz veteran Jan 'Ptaszyn' Wroblewski, and performer (with Komeda Sextet) at Sopot 1956, remembers : "At that time we didn't dream about anything like Jazz FESTIVAL. What was happening  was absolutely shocking. We are talking about a national event, with international guests - man, until that time I haven't played at anything better then dance halls in Poznan, and for the public consisting of my colleagues only. Tens of thousands people from all over the Poland came to Sopot for the festival. When the legendary rally (inspired by New Orleans funeral parades) went thorough the town you couldn't stick a finger anywhere - it was packed. The party was going on 24 hours a day, extraordinary, fantastic party. People, free people, were everywhere, on the streets, on the Sopot pier, on the beaches...".

The lineup of the festival included Melomani, Andrzej Kurylewicz Band, Zygmunt Wichary Band, Drazek i Pieciu, Jerzy Grzewinski Band, Kamil Hala Band (Czechoslovakia), Pawel Gruenspan Band, Pinokio, The Dave Burman Jazz Group (England) and first Polish modern Jazz band - Komeda Sextet with Krzysztof Komeda on piano, Jerzy Milian - vibes, Stanislaw Pludra - alto sax, Jan 'Ptaszyn ' Wroblewski - baritone sax, Jozef Stolarz - bass, and Jan Zylber on drums.

The 2nd Jazz Festival in Sopot took place in the following year - 1957, and once again created an oasis for Jazz fans to show up, to freely express their love for Western music, and to unify. Sopot '57 festival was also a place of the first since 1933 (the year Hitler came to power) significant cultural interaction between Poland and Germany. German bands: Joki Freud Quintet and Emil Mangelsdorff Swingtet, as well as bands from Poland, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and (for the first time) Americans: clarinet master Albert Nicholas, and singer Big Bill Ramsey, won hearts of Polish Jazz fans and initiated one of the first reciprocal transfers of ideas between artists from two opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. In the following year the tradition of the annual jazz festival was transplanted to Warsaw where the new festival simply called "Jazz `58", was held in September at the Stodola club. Leopold Tyrmand came up with the name for the annual gathering - "Jazz Jamboree" and this tradition has been passed from decade to decade and continues until today.

But despite Jazz scene gaining cultural and social freedoms; the political misfortunes of Poland were not over. In June 1956, an insurrection began in city Poznan. The workers rioted to protest shortages of food and consumer goods, bad housing, decline in real income, shipments of commodities to the Soviet Union and poor management of the economy. The Polish government initially responded by branding the rioters "provocateurs, counterrevolutionaries and imperialist agents". Security forces killed and wounded scores of protesters. Audio Clip: Prime Minister Jozef Cyrankiewicz bashes "provocateurs" However, the party hierarchy soon recognized that the riots had awakened nationalist movement and reversed its opinion. A liberalizing "thaw" in Eastern Europe caused a more liberal faction of the Polish communists to gain power. Political prisoner, of both democratic (pre-war) Poland and (post-war) Communists' gulags, Wladyslaw Gomulka became the new secretary of communist party. Audio Clip: Wladyslaw Gomulka's victory speech

In February 1956, after having overcome many difficulties, the first issue of the monthly music magazine called "Jazz" was published in Poland. Created by its chief editor Jan Balcerak, "Jazz" magazine came to be the only Jazz magazine published behind the Iron Curtain. Polish journalists finally got a forum where they could not only write strictly informational texts, but could also venture into the previously unreachable territory of daring polemics. Another development in the Polish Jazz scene of the 1950s was the creation of the first official Jazz clubs. Amongst the most prominent were the "Stodola" and the "Hybrydy" in Warsaw. For the next few decades, these Jazz clubs were thriving venues. Young Jazz enthusiasts, such as Jan Borkowski of "Hybrydy" fame, got their own format where they were able to cultivate their love of Jazz and hunger for western culture. By the end of the 1950s, the Jazz clubs in Poland had created their own first semi-official association: the Polish Jazz Federation, with bassist Jan Byrczek at the helm. In 1963 Byrczek founded the Polish Jazz Society and served as its president until 1973. During his leadership the Society grew into the largest jazz organization of Europe with branch offices in various parts of Poland.

In the late 1950s, for the first time, Jazz fans in Poland had a chance to listen to musicians from outside of the country. This changed everything, especially the perception and interpretation of what Jazz was and what it wasn't. The foreign musicians that came to Poland in those early years - and what they played - had an extremely important influence on the development of Jazz in Poland. Dave Brubeck was one of the first, visiting in 1958. Consequently, his brand of "cool" Jazz influenced a whole generation of Polish Jazz musicians and fans.

One man was especially important for Jazz to develop and become an important fixture on the Polish cultural landscape, and his name was Leopold Tyrmand. A writer and enfant terrible of Warsaw's cultural elite, Tyrmand was as well dressed as articulate. Independent, brave and extremely intelligent, he came from assimilated Polish Jewish family. He was also very knowledgeable on the subject of Jazz music. Tyrmand wrote and published the first books and articles about Jazz in Poland, helped to organize the initial Jazz gatherings and is credited with the creation of the most famous festival, the Jazz Jamboree and picking the Jazz standard "Swanee River" as the festival's anthem. Tyrmand was the first Polish Jazz Guru, and possible the most influential one ever. Fiercely anticommunist and antiestablishment (which later on forced him to emigration) he was well aware of Jazz inherited freedom in context of Orwellian system of 1950's Poland.  For Tyrmand Jazz was something more then just a music, more then art. As he once wrote: "jazz has cemented and become symbolic of the milieus (social setting ) that sprang up spontaneously through natural selection and of their own choice".  Tyrmand emigrated to the United States in 1966.  Once in the States, he regularly published essays in American periodicals such as 'The New Yorker 'and 'The New York Times Magazine'. Even in the States, he remained a contrarian  for the rest of his life, refusing to accept socially accepted consensus, and becoming the co-founder and vice-president of the Rockford Institute, a conservative foundation.  He served as editor of 'Chronicles of Culture', an anti-Communist journal he hoped would serve as a conservative alternative to 'The New York Review of Books'.  Tyrmand died of a heart attack in Fort Myers, Florida. He was 65 years old. His legacy will live on forever.

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