Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last
From catacombs to the free society
- the Story of Polish Jazz
Chapter 4: Polish Jazz in 1970's
Part 2
Milestones:
Jan 'Ptaszyn' Wroblewski
Wojciech (Wojtek) Karolak
During the 1970s, the third decade of Jan
'Ptaszyn' Wroblewski career, he truly became an indispensable
ingredient in the many flavors being created. Born in 1936 in Kalisz,
Poland, he came from the generation that, in the Stalinist era,
discovered jazz on clandestine radios when it was considered degenerate,
immoral, and subversive. Wroblewski debuted at the first Sopot Jazz
Festival in 1956 with Krzysztof Komeda's Sextet. Wroblewski was
quickly spotted by George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival,
to represent Poland in the International Youth Band conducted by
Marshall Brown at the 1958 Festival. He was the first musician from
behind the Iron Curtain to perform in the group. The Band s performance
with a guest appearance by Louis Armstrong was memorialized in the
American cult classic documentary "Jazz on a Summer s Day and
partially recorded for Columbia (CL-1246). As a result, Ptaszyn
toured the US (Boston, New York, Los Angeles), Holland, and Belgium,
where he gave several concerts at the American Theatre at Expo '58
in Brussels, along with Sarah Vaughan, Teddy Wilson, and Sidney Bechet, among others. After coming back to Poland, he became the
leader of the Jazz Believers band (1958-59; other members included
Komeda and Kurylewicz), and incorporated jazz motifs heard in America
into their compositions. During the same year, Wroblewski recorded
his first album for the Polish Recording Company and debuted at
Warsaw s famous Jazz Jamboree Festival. In 1960, he formed the Jazz
Outsiders quintet. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Ptaszyn toured
extensively with his groups in Europe, Africa and Asia. In 1962
Wroblewski joined the top Polish band at that time ; the Andrzej
Kurylewicz Quintet which recorded first Polish Jazz LP ever - "Go
Right".
In 1963, the Kurylewicz Quintet was invited to the Juan les Pins
Festival in France but its leader was not given a passport. The
rest of the group, which since then existed as the Polish Jazz Quartet,
left for France: Wroblewski; tenor sax, Wojciech Karolak; piano,
Andrzej Dabrowsk ; drums, and Roman Gucio Dylag; double-bass. Following
the Juan les Pins Festival, the group gave concerts at the Blue
Note in Paris and toured West Germany for several months. The formation
came back to Poland in 1964 at their best, and in the same year
released the noteworthy album in the Polish Jazz Series (Polish
Jazz Quartet),
Audio
Clip:: Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski – Outline
and had another success at the Bled Festival in Yugoslavia.
In the 1970s Wroblewski returned to playing saxophone in smaller
bands. From 1973 to 1977, together with Wojciech Karolak (on Hammond
organs), he led "Mainstream",
Audio
Clip: Mainstream – Dookola Wojtek a leading Polish straight-ahead
jazz band. The group recorded two LP albums, performed in Germany,
Hungary, and the USSR, toured Holland, and recorded for Polish Radio.
In 1977, on the basis of Mainstream, Jan
Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet was formed (Marek Blizinski ; guitar,
Vitold Rek, later replaced by Zbyszek Wegehaupt ; double-bass, and
Andrzej Dabrowski ; drums). The quartet often collaborated with
vocalist Ewa Bem. The formation was very active, recording two LPs,
performing in Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and India (Calcutta
Jazz Fest and in Bombay), and touring Holland twice. A high point
for the original Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet was its 1981 US tour
with spectacular appearances at New York s Village Vanguard and
the NAJE Convention in St. Louis.
Audio
Clip: Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski Quartet – Pastuszek Stomp
But the accomplishments of his small bands, have become obscured
by his much closer association with free Jazz and "Studio Jazzowe
Polskiego Radia". In 1967 Wroblewski became director of the
M-2 Studio Group. Their performance under the name Jazz Studio during
the 1968 Warsaw Jazz Jamboree was such a great success that Polish
Public Radio gave up the M-2 Studio name, transforming it into the
Polish Radio Jazz Studio. The Studio was a unique blend: part venue
for free expression by virtuosos and soloists and part workshop
for musicians and composers. It would be virtually impossible to
find any important Polish Jazz composer or soloist who at one time
or another in their career had not been involved with the Studio.
Musicians, composers and soloists had a chance to test their own
ideas and have them confronted and discussed in a peer-group setting.
The Studio recorded for Polish Radio, produced almost 20 TV programs,
released two records, performed at festivals in Kongsberg (Norway),
Ahus (Sweden), Pori (Finland), Nuremberg (Germany), Szekesfehervar
(Hungary), and at all Warsaw s Jazz Jamboree Festivals. Without
the Studio and without its leader, Wroblewski, Polish Jazz would
not be the same.
Audio
Clip: Studio Jazzowe Polskiego Radia – Magma (Z. Seifert, violin
solo)
What might have been initially a joke, or the result of the willful
consumption of too much liquid distillate from Polish potatoes,
another forum for Wroblewski's expression in the 1970s was S.P.T.T.
- Stowarzyszenie Popierania Prawdziwej Tworczosci (the Association
for Advancement of Real Art) or Chalturnik. "Chalturnik"
in Polish means somebody who does not perform its work well, but
in contrary - very bad and without to much caring about it. One
could describe the music of Chalturnik as a mix of bar mitzvah /
weeding band sounds, 1920s happy jazz, and Art Ensemble of Chicago
mambo-jumbo philosophy, all filled with clichéd Peruvian street
group repertoire and as weird as Burt Bacharach's psychedelic soundtrack
to 1967 James Bond flick "Casino Royal". Chalturnik was
natural extension for Wroblewski's Jazz Studio experiments. However,
the band had a more intimate and relaxed atmosphere and used musical
persiflage or banter. Nevertheless, the premise remained the same:
to experiment, to confront taboos, to challenge judgments and to
take new unorthodox approaches to attitudes never before questioned
- but with much more distance and humor. The lineup of Chalturnik
included some of the brightest stars from Polish Jazz constellation
of 1970s like Z. Namyslowski, J. Muniak, and T. Szukalski as well
as other musicians not normally associated with Polish jazz, among
them tuba player Z. Piernik, famous for his interpretation of Krzysztof
Penderecki's music.
Audio
Clip: Chalturnik – Music For K.
In 1981, after his quartet broke up, Ptaszyn focused on collaborating
with the new generation of musicians. After leading workshop classes
with a group of debutants at Chodziez Music Workshop in July 1982,
Wroblewski decided to introduce these young musicians to the Polish
jazz scene by forming his new band New Presentation, with Jerzy
Glod on drums, Jacek Niedziela on double-bass, Wojciech Niedziela
on piano, and Robert Majewski on trumpet. The group did not tour
abroad because of martial law in Poland, but it took part in two
editions of the Jazz Jamboree Festival and recorded an LP for Poljazz
before it broke up after two years. Wroblewski considers New Presentation
one of the most important groups in his career. In the 1990s Ptaszyn
returned to re-developing and fine-tuning his perfect quartet: he
worked with young and accomplished jazzmen, including the Simple
Acoustic Trio with Marcin Wasilewski, Slawek Kurkiewicz, and Michal
Miskiewicz , and with pianist Andrzej Jagodzinski. In 1996, the
new Ptaszyn Wroblewski Quartet was finally formed with the brilliant
musicians Marcin Jahr on drums, Jacek Niedziela on double-bass,
and Wojciech Niedziela on piano. The quartet, sometimes playing
as a sextet (with Henryk Miskiewicz, Henryk and Robert Majewski)
has been giving concerts in the same line-up ever since. Today,
well into the 21st century, Ptaszyn remains active on Polish Jazz
scene, leading the bands and taking parts in varieties of musical
projects, including his long time work at Polish radio as Poland's
longest running and the most influential Jazz DJ. His close collaboration
since 1959 with Willis Conover, resulted in his creation of "Forty-Five
Minutes of Jazz", Ptaszyn s weekly broadcast at the Polish
Radio that has been on the air since 1970 and served as a first
"Jazz University" for many jazz fans in Poland, including
the author of this essay.
Wojciech (Wojtek) Karolak (born
on 28 May 1939 in Warsaw, Poland, where he still lives today) is
a notable Hammond B-3 organ player who refers to himself as "an
American jazz and rhythm and blues musician, born by mistake in
Middle Europe". He has also played saxophone and piano professionally.
In 1958, he started working with the band the "Jazz Believers"
playing alto saxophone. The Jazz Believers consisted of the future
top Polish jazz players, among them Andrzej Trzaskowski, Krzysztof
Komeda, and Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski. Next, Wojciech Karolak played
tenor saxophone in Andrzej Trzaskowski s "The Wreckers".
In 1961, Karolak switched from saxophone back to piano. In 1962,
formed his own trio and started recording his own music. This trio
become the premier jazz band in Poland and backed most Western/American
artist visiting Poland, among them Annie Ross, Ray Charles, and
Don Ellis. In 1966, Karolak left Poland for Sweden where he played
rock and blues in music clubs in order to, in his own words, "make
enough money to buy an apartment and a Hammond B-3" which he
eventually bought in 1973. From then on, Karolak spent more time
composing and arranging though he did continue to collaborate and
perform with others. He cooperated with violinist Michal Urbaniak
in Europe and in the U.S., and recorded few albums with Urbaniak's
groups, including important landmark - "Constellation
in Concert" (1973) which presented the mature possibilities
of the Polish brand of fusion. After his return to Poland, he collaborated
with Zbigniew Namyslowski (including legendary album "Kujaviak
Goes Funky"), and then co-led the group Mainstream and
worked as a composer-arranger for the Polish Radio Studio Jazz Orchestra.
In 1974 he recorded album "Easy",
possibly the best Polish funk album ever, which he described: "I
intended to cut a record with pop music played by jazz musicians.
It was done easy, and it should be listened to easy as well; it
may come through one ear and flow away through another. And if,
incidentally, it brings the listener some pleasure - we may say
that is mission is filled."Audio
Clip: Wojciech Karolak – Instant Groove (Easy) In the
1980s Karolak established, a "super formation" - 'The Killers' with
Tomasz Szukalski (saxes) and Czeslaw Bartkowski (drums). The group
recorded only one self-titled album but it marked the history of
Polish jazz forever, being the best example of exciting adaptation
of Weather Report's language into Polish Jazz idiom. Jazz Forum's
critics survey in 1990s found 'Time
Killers' album to be the Best Polish Jazz Record of 1980's.
Audio
Clip: Time Killers – Anniversery blue Since the 1990s
Karolak has played with the guitarist Jaroslaw Smietana, and collaborated
with variety of rock bands. With Piotr Baron and Zbigniew Lewandowski,
Karolak has started "The High Bred Jazz Trio". He continues to write,
arrange, and perform in Poland and abroad. the band shared common
interest in Polish musical folk tradition.
