STODOLA BIG BAND
Let's Swing Again
Polish Jazz vol.28

Label: Polskie Nagrania - Muza , 19710/2007
Catalogue No: PNCD 1028 (SXL 0826)
Format: CD (24-bit re-mastered from original master tapes)

Tracks:
1. Dogrywka
2. Sweet Georgia Brown
3. Salaam Alejkum
4. Skwar
5. Riff Blues
6. Osik
7. Agata na sprzedaz
8. Przez rzekę
9. After You've Gone
10. Ja Z.Z.
11. Slodka Izabella

Performed by Stodola Big Band:
Trumpets: Henryk Majewski, Wieslaw Ejssmont , Jerzy Florczak, Jan Kluska, Zenon Wachowicz
Trombones: Stanislaw Cislak, Zbigniew Konopczynski, Piotr Michalowski, Wieslaw Zukowski, Ryszard Borowiecki
Alto Saxophones: Janusz Zabieglinski, Henryk Miskiewicz
Tenor Saxophones: Zbigniew Jaremko, Andrzej Lipinski
Waldemar Kurpinski - bass clairnet
Pawel Perlinski - piano
Marian Komar - bass
Henryk Stefanski - guitar
Wojciech Kowalewski - drums

Recorded:
December 1971, at Polskie Nagrania - Studio 12, Warsaw, Poland

About:

Not everyone knows that Stodola Club was founded in large part thanks to our Soviet friends…Really, I mean it. Our Eastern neighbours founded the Culture & Science Palace, but it's the wooden canteen where the Palace's builders used to eat. The first dances and cabaret nights were organised there, which began the Stodola Club - The Warsaw Polytechnic School Central Club. The official opening was on April 5th 1956.

Since then (from the barrack on Emilia Plater's St.), the Club moved four times: to Trebacka Street (barrack at the Great Theater's back), to Wspolna St. (former common room of the National Railway's headquarters), to Nowowiejska St. (former Oka Cinema) and at finally in 1972 to its present location - the newly built building on Batory Street.

During all these years of Stodola activity, the most important Muses found their place here: cabaret, film theatre, dance, literature, music and photography.

It all started with dances, jazz nights and cabarets. Every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Janusz Zabieglinski's jazz band played the dances. The first cabaret program "There is a method to this madness" had its premiere on May 22nd 1956. The script was by Jerzy Harasiewicz. Jan Biczycki was the director and the performers were among others Jan Stanislawski and Henryk Synter. For many years, jazz and cabaret were the most important events at Stodola, for its' reputation and image. The Warsaw audience always loved and appreciated the various Cabaret artists that were presented by Stodola. The Stodola artists who have performed include Krystyna Chimanienko, Andrzej Krajewski, Kazimierz Pienkowski, Slawa Przybylska, and Jan Stanisławski. The fifth Cabaret show "The Ubu King - the scandalous fantasy about Alfred Jarra" (1956) was a huge success and received many awards (among them: the satiric "SZPILKI" magazine award). The best artists of Poland performed in "Stodola" Cabaret during the many years of its activity: Ewa Bem, Fryderyk Elkan, Marek Golebiewski, Elzbieta Jodlowska, Krzysztof Knottel, Wojciech Mann, Krzysztof Materna, Czeslaw Niemen, Andrzej Rosiewicz, Magdalena Umer, Janusz Weiss, Marcin Wolski, Jan Wolek, and Andrzej Woyciechowski.

From the very beginning, Stodola was the big 'Jazz place' of Warsaw. The first three International Jazz Festivals "Jazz Jamboree" ('58, '59, '60) took place in Stodola. At the time of the move from Emilia Plater St. to Trebacka St., six jazz bands played regularly at Stodola. They were the Dixieland Makers, the Jazz Rockers, the New Orleans Stompers, the Janusz Zabieglinski Swingtet, the Warsaw Swingtet and Gwidon Widelski's Trio. In January 1964 (from the idea of Jerzy Bojanowski, Stodola's President at the time) the Traditional Jazz Club was founded. Its members organized Jazz Fridays every week. The Traditional Jazz "Zlota Tarka" Competitions and Old Jazz Meetings festivals were taking place in the Club in the late sixties. The greatest jazz bands of the times used to rehearse here: the Stodola Big Band, Gold Washboard, Hagaw, the Old Timers, the Storyville Jazz Band, and the Vistula River Brass Band.

The cabaret activity was a great start to theater creation. Marek Golebiewski started a mime group in 1970. The first spectacle called "Test" (1972) was a compilation of six etudes and the press called it "a bunch of fantastic music and fictional ideas". The following shows: "Where do you go?" (1973), "The Report about the Blind" (1975), "Three times about the betrayals" and "The Mime Etudes" (1978) met the critic's approval and proved the group's high artistic level.1977 saw the appearance of another theatre scene in Warsaw - the Warsaw Theatre Group that was started 3 years before in the Proxima Club. The Group was of a social-politic character and was very successful too. Stodola's high artistic level was solidified by the fact that Tadeusz Kantor only chose Stodola for the place of his spectacles and lectures in Warsaw.

Stodola also used to be the place for cinema lovers. At first, there was a "Stodola" Film Discussion Club, though it was located outside the Stodola Club itself (technical reasons) in the Iluzja Cinema, then in 1964 The Film Club. Its activity in large part was based on using the equipment of the old Hybrydy Club (a popular student club in Warsaw). That way a few documentaries were realized, e.g. "Jazz in Stodola" by Jerzy Rode, "C'est la vie" by Ryszard Grzesiak, "The Muranow Cometee" by Marek Wortman and Max Frisch' book adaptation "Let's say Gantenbein" which got good reviews.

In 1973, two different student film organizations merged under one name, The Student Film Centre. The Centre was seated at the present Stodola location - Batorego St. The new spot was equipped with everything needed for professional film production. The SFC released a few dozen short documentaries (1973-1977). Some of them were awarded at film festivals around Poland: "The Eskimo War" (Grand Prix at the Student Film Festival, Krakow 1972), Ewa Mlozniak's "Zaraz wracam" (Student Film Festival - I award, 1974). The important film for the Stodola Club was "Korowod" by Jerzy Kapuscinski. It was made on the 20th anniversary of the club; it reflected the most important moments in Stodola's history.

text courtesy of Bartosz Rzepczynski (Based mainly on the book: Jerzy Karpinski "Around Stodola 1956-1981")