Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last
From catacombs to the free society
- the Story of Polish Jazz
Chapter 3: Polish Jazz in 1960's
Part 3
Milestones:
Jazz nad Odra Festival
The Polish Jazz Series by Polskie Nagrania - Muza
Novi Singers
Mieczyslaw Kosz
Wlodzimierz Nahorny
The artists like Komeda, Trzaskowski, Matuszkiewicz, Kurylewicz
or Wroblewski had unprecedented input on development of Jazz in
Poland and its maturing in 1960's, but all of these would not be
possible without other elements. Jazz critique was flourishing in
Jan Balcerak's "Jazz", and since 1964 at "Jazz
Forum" magazines. Jazz was played in "official" radio
and founding its way into TV programs. Jazz Festivals were prospering,
with the principal one in Warsaw - Jazz Jamboree, which was
caring a legacy of Sopot Festivals from 1950's.
In 1964 first Jazz nad Odra festiva (Jazz
at the Oder River) took place in southern city of Poland, Wroclaw.
Created and run by jazz fans and local college's activists: Wlodek
Sandecki, Maryla Wasyluk, Karol Maskos, Mietek Sidor, Andrzej Zurek,
Aleksander Fleisher, Wojciech Siwek, Maciej Partykiand, and others,
soon grow from a local into the national event. The focus of "Jazz
nad Odra" has always been on Polish Jazz; and for the new bands
and musicians, for whom the festival established a special competition,
it was the place to be. Countless bands and musicians got their
first national exposure at the festival, and the ability to test
their ideas and musical concepts in front of the live and receptive
audience. And to have a lot of fun along the way. For the public
"Jazz nad Odra" was simple an enclave of freedom, the
freedom of expression, the freedom for participation, and the freedom
of choice. In 1963 Jan Byrczek and other jazz activists founded
the Polish Jazz Society which soon grew into the largest jazz organization
of Europe with branch offices in various parts of Poland. And it's
all was happening in the country with totalitarian, single-party
political system, with no free press, and no democratic processes.
Paradoxically, in 1960's Poland the sole areas where democratic
ideas could flourish, free market concepts develop, and freedoms
be realized, was a cultural field, with Jazz sphere principally.
Year 1964 is an important milestone in recorded history of Polish
Jazz. On that year of "The Polish
Jazz Series" was initiated by the only one officially
sanctioned those days record label in Poland: Polskie Nagrania -
Muza. The series was a creation of Ryszard Sielicki
(label's artistic director) and Andrzej Karpinski (managing editor).
The series itself became a phenomena - world's longest continuous
running series of vinyl records with recordings of the Jazz
artists from one country. The cycle has continued for more
then three decades well into the late 80's; 76 volumes were
released, documenting the heritage and the living
history of Polish Jazz. Without the series the history of Polish
Jazz would not be the same. Four decades after its debut, the new
and dynamic management of (resurrected in the new political reality)
Polskie Nagrania label, decided to re-release all volumes of the
series in CD format under the new series: "Polish Jazz Deluxe". The
content of the new series is supplemented by another important
Polish Jazz recordings released by Polskie Nagrania, which were
originally issued outside of "Polish Jazz Series". Thank you
Polskie Nagrania for keeping the legacy of Polish Jazz alive and
available for future generations.
The best Polish vocal group ever -
Novi
Singers come in to view in the middle of 1960's.
Audio
Clip: Novi Singers - Brownie (Bossa Nova, Polish Jazz vol.13) The members of the group included
Bernard Kawka, Ewa Wanat, Janusz Much, and Waldemar Parzynski. Later
on after Bernard Kafka left the band, Ryszard Szeremeta joined the
group. With their absolute technically perfect commend of the singing,
NOVI were often compared to Lambert-Ross-Hendricks. What distinguished
the band from their contemporaries was their unique background,
indulged in authentic Polish folk music, and music of Polish-French
composer Frederic Chopin. Jan Borkowski wrote about NOVI:
"The NOVI use their voices like instruments. They can give
the monosyllables of their vocalizes any sound and articulation
they wish. In late 1964 a young graduate of the Warsaw Conservatory,
Bernard Kawka, fascinated by the music of Bill Evans, whom he had
met in Scandinavia, decided to devote himself to jazz. In the Conservatory
he found others who shared his enthusiasm for this music. This led
to the formation of the band. They considered that the best way
of expressing their jazz ideas would be to use their own voices."
Describing their unique style, Bernard Kawka of NOVI observed: “There
is this epidemic of labeling, everybody labels everybody - seems
some people can’t sleep at night without having everything neatly
classified. I don’t give a damn if somebody says I sing church music,
and somebody says it’s military marches and somebody says it’s nursery
rhymes, and somebody else wonders if it’s jazz. (…) I don’t care
what it’s going to get called, I just want it to be good.”Another
member of NOVI - Ewa Wanat - continued: "Above all we found
the human voice to be a perfect jazz instrument and that the possibilities
in sound, expression and interpretation were unlimited. We knew
that there was still much to be done in the field we had chosen
and so we decided to become real improvisers: to create music while
singing. We resigned from lyrics, and began to scat. Texts are self-determining
and make improvisation difficult, while we want our music to be
spontaneous, fresh and full of improvising expression and rhythmic
dynamism that belongs to Afro-rooted music".
An
extraordinary talented pianist Mieczyslaw
Kosz, was another young Polish Jazz artist, who defined
the essence of the Polish Jazz art form. Kosz defined his credo:
"I am particularly concerned about expression and colour.
I want to paint the mood, which sweeps over me'. Mieczyslaw
Kosz was born on January 10, 1994 in small village Antoniowka in
eastern Poland. He was blinded at a very early age due to inherited
illness and has lived his entire life sightless. He discovered a
love for music at a very early age - during his kindergarten years.
He was mostly self taught, the only formal music education he has
ever obtained was a diploma the high school music academy in Krakow.
He worked as a professional pianist in bars and restaurants of Tatry
mountains resort town Zakopane in southern Poland. In 1967 he debuted
as a jazz pianist at Warsaw's Jazz Jamboree Festival in 1967. He
immediately achieved recognition on Polish Jazz scene and critical
acclaim. During the next several years he collaborated with some
of the most important Polish jazz musicians, including drummers:
Czeslaw Bartkowski and
Janusz Stefanski; bass players:
Jacek Ostaszewski and Bronislaw
Suchanek, and saxophone player Jan
'Ptaszyn' Wroblewski. He appeared at the most important Polish
jazz festivals, including Jazz Jamboree, Jazz nad Odra, and he traveled
and performed in Europe (Paris). He died tragically, probably due
to suicide, on May 31, 1973 in Warsaw. Kosz's piano stylistics
are very similar to Bill Evans. As Evans, Kosz's music always displayed
a mastery of harmony, rhythm, and interpretive jazz conception.
He was well known for sensitivity of his sound, sophisticated technique,
artistic invention, lyricism, elegant composition, and in the same
time simplicity of expression and direct appeal to his listeners.
His work fused elements from jazz, European romantic music (Debussy,
Chopin, Schumann), and Polish ethnic folklore music. As Bill Evans
and Lennie Tristano, Mieczyslaw Kosz developed a unique conception
of ensemble performance and a classical sense of form and conceptual
scale in unprecedented, in Polish jazz, ways. Kosz, similarly to
other masters of Polish jazz like Krzysztof Komeda and Zbigniew
Seifert, has never had a time to fully realized his talent, potential
and transplant them to international jazz scene. His suicidal death
at a ridiculously young age was a true tragedy. He still remains
one the greatest (and underappreciated) geniuses of Polish and European
jazz. Audio
Clip: Mieczyslaw Kosz - Reminiscence (Reminiscence, Polish Jazz
vol.25)
Similarly to Kosz, pianist, saxophonist, flautist, arranger and
film composer Wlodzimierz Nahorny started
his career in 1960's. Thankfully, he had more time and opportunity
then Kosz, to grow and to develop, and to become a Polish Jazz legend.
Nahorny was born in 1941 in Radzyn Podlaski and made his debut on
stage in 1959 with his own quartet "Little Four". The
ubiquitous Nahorny is to be found on many of the most important
Polish jazz recordings and similarly graced many a star-studded
festival line-up throughout Europe, U.S. & Asia during the sixties
and seventies; especially at Warsaw's Jazz Jamboree Festival. In
1965 his trio debuted at "Jazz nad Odra" festival and
immediately gained national recognition and critical acclaim. The
trio recorded an important, free jazz album for Polish Jazz Series
tiled "Heart"
(Polish Jazz vol.15). In 1966 Nahorny received (from the hands
of Duke Ellington himself) a prestigious modern jazz laureate award
at the jazz competition in Vienna, Austria. Audio
Clip: W. Nahorny Trio - Serce Muniaka (Heart, Polish Jazz vol.15)
Later on he successfully collaborated with many major
Polish Jazz leaders, including Andrzej Kurylewicz, Krzysztof Sadowski,
Andrzej Trzaskowski and Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski. During the late
1960s he also teamed up and recorded with legendary Polish prog-rock
group Breakout, and later on with progressive jazz vocalist Marianna
Wroblewska, singer Lucja Prus and group Novi Singers. In his musical
interest Nahorny often reached beyond the jazz field; he is a very
successful pop music composer and author of one of the greatest
Polish pop song ever - "Jej Portret". Despite his successes
in pop music field, especially important in his songbook is a series
of works inspired by the music of Polish composer Karol Szymanowski.
Another filed of Nahorny's artistic expressions are his soundtracks
for motion and TV pictures.
Gradually, as the 1960's came to the end, new talents emerged and
fresh musicians and the bands began to play more important roles.
During the late 1960's, following clues from booming Polish Jazz
scene, many avant-garde musicians in Poland were discovering the
free Jazz concepts of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. Interestingly,
due to the isolation of the country, the Polish style developed
independently. Some of the new names soon became very significant,
such as trumpeter Andrzej
Przybielski, bass players Helmut
Nadolski, Jacek Bednarek
and Czeslaw Gladkowski.
All of them played in the important role in the new decade of Polish
jazz history - 1970's.
An
extraordinary talented pianist