Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last
From catacombs to the free society
- the Story of Polish Jazz
Chapter 3: Polish Jazz in 1960's
Part 2
Milestones:
Jerzy Dudus Matuszkiewicz
Andrzej Trzaskowski
Andrzej Kurylewicz
Krzysztof Komeda
The increased interest in Jazz also blossomed into a growing acceptance of
more demanding styles. It is difficult to clearly mark the distinction between
mainstream and avant-garde Jazz in the Polish Jazz of the 1960s and 1970s; too
many musicians walked the fine line between the two. Perhaps the best approach
to analyze the modern Jazz in Poland is to focus on its leading figures.
Melomani's leader, Jerzy "Dudus" Matuszkiewicz
(born in 1928), and one of the creators of Polish Jazz after World War II, since 1960's followed a much more lucrative livelihood
as a composer of popular music for television and cinema. He wrote scores to
more then 200 films including the music to the most popular Polish TV show of
1960's "Stawka Wieksza niz Zycie". He sporadically played jazz in 1960's but
during the next decades devoted himself almost solely to composing. Thankfully
to his fans, in 1990's he came back to his first love - Jazz, and has been appearing occasionally on the Polish musical scene since then.
Swingstet Jerzego Matuszkiewicza Swinging Samba
Another Melomani's alumni Andrzej Trzaskowski (born in 1963), remained active in Jazz and in the 1960's, and
he is considered to be the most important representative of Polish Third Stream
- the hybrid of Jazz and philharmonic
music. This fascination with more "serious" music and an attraction to contemporary
techniques of composition overlapped with increasingly interest in works of
of contemporary Polish music composers such as T. Baird, B. Schoefer and K.
Penderecki. Although controversial and not always satisfying, Third Stream experiments
expanded the vocabulary of Jazz and enhanced both artistic sensitivity and its
overall image. Studio Jazzowe PR, Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski,
conductor / Andrzej Trzaskowski, composer - Magma, Z. Seifert, violin solo
(Sprzedawcy Glonow) Trzaskowski
was
a classically
trained pianist, and co-founder of Melomani; he also took private lessons
in composition and contemporary music theory
and later on (1970's)
was active at the experimental studio of Polish radio. During 1958
he played and recorded with the Jazz Believers, a quintet that included
Wojciech Karolak and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, and worked with
another quintet, led by Jerzy Matuszkiewicz.
The following year he formed his own hard bop group, the Wreckers,
with which he toured the USA in 1962 as the first Polish Jazz band
ever. As the leader of small groups Trzaskowski performed and recorded
with many American musicians visiting Poland, including Stan Getz
(1960) Andrzej
Trzaskowski Trio & Stan Getz - But not for me (Live in Warsaw)
and Ted Curson (1965-6).Andrzej
Trzaskowski - Seant (Seant, Polish Jazz vol. 11) Many
leading Polish musicians, including Zbigniew Namyslowski, Tomasz
Stanko, and Michal Urbaniak, played with his groups early in their
careers. Trzaskowski began to incorporate avant-garde techniques
in his work from 1964. In the late 1960's he worked regularly for
Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg, West Germany, writing more than
20 compositions and participating in workshops. Although an excellent
pianist, from the early 1970's he has concentrated more on composition. Trzaskowski
also has written music for films and theater, two Jazz ballets,
and "Nihil Novi", a Third Stream work performed by Don
Ellis at the Jazz Jamboree International Festival in Warsaw (1962).
Alumni of Trzaskowski's bands Tomasz Stanko remembers Trzaskowski:
"Trzaskowski was an excellent musician, talented composer
and a great human being. My tenure in his bands awarded me with
a chance to work with many extraordinary musicians and I remember
the time atmosphere we all had there. Andrzej was an artist and
a very sensitive man. Many times he could not handle the stress
very well; he just had a difficulty to relax to let it go. To be
a jazz musician one need to be made from he feathers and have a
skin of the elephant. Unfortunately for Trzaskowski, he just couldn't
take it." From 1975 onward, Trzaskowski led an orchestra for Polish radio and television, and contributed many criticul reviews to "Jazz Forum" magazine. Andrzej Trzaskowski died in Warsaw at the age of 65 and was buried in the city's Powazki cemetery.
In contrary to Trzaskowski,
Andrzej
Kurylewicz (born in 1932), was initially more a man of swing then an avant-garde.
He was also a a man of many talents: composer, pianist, trumpet-player,
and trombonist. Born in Lwow, 1932, he began his musical education
in the Music School (Szkola Muzyczna) in Lwow, and in the Institute
of Music (Instytut Muzyczny) in Gliwice. He went on to study in
college at the Academy of Music (Wyzsza Szkola Muzyczna) in Kraków
- piano under Henryk Sztompka, and composition under Stanislaw Wiechowicz.
In 1954 he was kicked out from the Music Academy for... playing
jazz. With political liberalization few years later, he made his
debut as the founder of the Polish Radio Jazz Band (Zespol Jazzowy
Polskiego Radia) in Kraków and later on worked as a leader
of Polish Radio Organ Sextet (Sekstet Organowy Polskiego Radia).
Every year, since 1958 until 1971, he presented own programs at
the annual Jazz Jamboree festivals with his bands: Jazz Believers,
Modernisci, trios, quartets, quintets and with Jazz Orchestra of
the Polish Radio (later on known as Studio Jazzowe). He collaborated
with variety of artists, including Czeslaw Niemen and Tomasz Stanko.
In 1969 he founded the Formation of Contemporary Music (Formacja
Muzyki Wspolczesnej - strings, brass and percussion), which he led
till 1979. In 1967, in Warsaw’s Old Town, with his wife Wanda
Warska - a singer and painter – he opened "Piwnica Artystyczna
Kurylewiczow" – a studio for the performance of musical
and literary forms, distinct and combined. He was a passionate artist,
who has changed several times the field of his interests and activities,
since late 1960s he began drifting from Jazz field more toward contemporary
classical music. As a composer, he belonged - as he himself has
put it: "to the post-avant-garde of the late 20th century".
He composed numerous pieces for symphonic orchestra, for chamber
orchestra, as well as many song-cycles, psalms for Latin texts,
and a wide range of solo works, for piano, harpsichord, organ, flute,
tuba, double-bass, and others. As a pianist, Andrzej Kurylewicz
valued highly the music of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, offering
particularly outstanding interpretations of all twenty-two of that
composer’s Mazurkas. In his improvisations on the piano, he
has been particularly innovative in combining classical and contemporary
music with jazz. In 1959 he collaborated with "Teatr Rapsodyczny"
in Krakow, and wrote his first score for the movie
("Powrót"), starting life long successful collaboration
with film and theatre. His biggest hit was a score to made
for TV show "Polskie Drogi", the songs from this movie
were recorded and re-interpreted by many artists worldwide, including
Pat Metheny. Kurylewicz, who once admitted that he "never escaped
from Jazz" came back to regular playing with his own jazz trio
in 1994. Andrzej Kurylewicz departed on April 12, 2007.
The most important artist of 1960's and in the whole history of Polish Jazz was
Krzysztof Komeda (Krzysztof
Trzcinski). He was born on April 27, 1931 in Poznan, started
playing piano at the age of seven, but the war ruined any
chances for him of becoming a concert pianist. He grew up in
Czestochowa, and Ostrσw Wielkopolski where he graduated from the
Male Gymnasium, and participated in the Music and Poetry Club. He
studied medicine at Poznan and choose to be a laryngologist.
He picked his childhood alias "Komeda" for his artistic alter-ago
- in 1950's Poland it was not possible for reputable M.D. to play
"the decadent music of the West" - jazz. He was one of the
founders of legendary band Melomani; his professional jazz pianist
career started at the 1st Sopot Jazz Festival in 1956 with Janusz
Grzewinski Dixieland band and his own Sextet. He continued
his jazz career in Poland and Scandinavia for the next 12 years
with his own bands (Combo, Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet), which
dominated modern Polish Jazz scene. He also collaborated
with verity of musicians including Witold Kujawski, Janusz
Matuszkiewicz, Jerzy Milian, Jan "Ptaszyn" Wroblewski, Tomasz
Stanko, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Michal Urbaniak, Wojciech Karolak,
Roman Dylag, Andrzej Trzaskowski and others. He worked for the
theatre (Ballet Etudes, Breakfast at Tiffany's), regularly
performed at Jazz Jamboree festivals, and composed music for noted
German musicologist Joachim Berendt 's project "Jazz and Poetry
- Maine Susse Europaische Haimat" with poems by most important
Polish poets of the 20the century including Nobel price winners
Czeslaw Milosz, and Wislawa Szymborska.
Komeda's role in Polish Jazz cannot be explained in merely a few
sentences. Words like: genius, composer, visionary, collaborator
and leader cannot fully describe him. How could this talented but
not by any means virtuoso pianist with a medical degree make such
a great impact on Polish Jazz? How could all of the musicians who
played with him emphasize what an overwhelming impact his music
and his personality made on them? Komeda's long time collaborator
Tomasz Stanko commented: "Komeda was a very quit man. At
rehearsals he told us nothing, nothing. He would give us a score
and we would play and the silence was very strong and intense. He
wouldn't say if we were right or wrong in our approach. He'd just
smile. He was such a strong force, the music was so original
and he always gave me plenty of space for self-expression and
interpretation...He showed me how simplicity is vital, how to play
the essential. He showed different approaches, using different
harmonies, asymmetry. many details. I was very lucky that I
started out with him... "
The music of Komeda escapes simple classification
and description. He never formally studied composition, harmony,
arrangement nor orchestration. His unique sound has to a lesser extent to do with
conventional Jazz style timing, but rather with Slavic lyricism,
19th century Polish romantic music tradition, and a variable treatment
of time during the course of his compositions. He is widely credited
as being one of the founding fathers of uniquely European style
in Jazz composition. Audio
Clip: Krzysztof Komeda - Moja Ballada (Moja Ballada)
Critic Adam Slawinski wrote: "By sheer force of his
personality Komeda justified his need to control the emotional
territory hitherto reserved for symphonies. He expanded the range
of expression in jazz by adding a dramatized lyricism - it's force
reaching the intensity of ecstatic and mysterious experience. The
new jazz aesthetic demanded the new form. Komeda introduced a
directional form of arch, developed from an exposition through
culmination to a final resolution".
During his life, Komeda released only one album "Astigmatic
(Polskie Nagrania - Muza),"
which Penguin Guide to Jazz called "Simply - Essential!"
The new release with more influence on Polish Jazz has yet
to be recorded. Another field where Komeda excelled and achieved
world class status was his work for motion pictures; he wrote music
to over 40 films, including such Polish cinematic classics as Andrzej
Wajda’s “Innocent Sorcerers.” He also
collaborated with other Polish directors: J. Passendorfer, J. Skolimowski,
J. Morgenstern, J. Hoffman, L. Buczkowski, J. Nasfeter, and
renowned Danish film director Henning Carlsen. Especially
important was his very fruitful collaboration with director Roman
Polanski, that included
soundtracks to: "Two Men and a Wardrobe", "Cul-de-Sac" "Knife
in the Water", "Fearless
Vampire Killers" and "Rosemary's Baby".
In December 1968, in Los Angeles when working on
"Rosemary's Baby", Komeda had a tragic accident which led to
his death due to an internal brain damage. There are various
accounts of what happened: car accident in the autumn of 1968,
being pushed off an escarpment by writer Marek Hlasko during a
drinking party, felling down during the hike and suffering head
injuries. After having been transported to Poland he died on
April 23, 1969 in Warsaw without regaining consciousness. His funeral at the Powazki cemetery in Warsaw was attended by many of his friends, associates, artists and hordes of the fans.
Decades have passed after Komeda's tragically early death at the
age of 38, but despite passing of time his music is still alive,
inspiring new artists and conquering new hordes of listeners. Countless
Polish Jazz musicians have been exploring the legacy of Komeda and
his songbook, with Tomasz Stanko being the most famous "torch
carrier". There is even a pop-fusion band in Sweden called
"Komeda" that taken his name from Polish Jazz pianist
and composer. Komeda's compositions are present in contemporary
repertoire of numerous Jazz bands worldwide. One the them, USA-based
Komeda
Project Jazz quintet, was principally brought to life from a
desire to perform and be able to hear Krzysztof Komeda's live music
again.
