Tomaszewski is a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. While still a student, he founded his first band – Tomaszewski Trio, which in the following years was honoured with awards at the biggest festivals and competitions in Poland. Participation in Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa enabled the band to record the album Actual Proof, which was added to the Jazz Forum magazine in 2006, thus allowing the trio to reach a wider audience and popularize Tomaszewski’s work.
As a third-year student, Tomaszewski was invited to cooperate with drummer and bandleader Eryk Kulm, who reactivated one of the most popular Polish jazz bands of the 90’s – Quintessence. Over the course of ten years, the band featured stars of the music scene, among them Leszek Możdżer, Piotr Wojtasik, Maciej Sikała, Wojciech Karolak, Wojciech Niedziela, Jacek Meira, Robert Majewski, Andrzej Jagodziński, Piotr Baron, Henryk Miśkiewicz and others. The band played numerous concerts and recorded an album Back To The Presence, released in 2005. In later years, Eryk Kulm invited American musicians to the rhythm section, including trumpeters Longineu Parsons and Troy Anderson, and saxophonist Sulaiman Hakeem.
Another important point in Tomaszewski’s artistic career was his cooperation with Jarosław Śmietana. Tomaszewski performed with his quartet in Germany, Belgium, France, England, Scotland, Romania, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Georgia, and Vietnam. With the same quartet he had an opportunity to perform with such prominent artists as Nigel Kennedy, Larry Coryell, Z-Star, Karen Edwards, Bill Neal, Wojciech Karolak, Hanna Banaszak, Ryszard Rynkowski, Jorgos Skolias, Krzesimir Dębski, Wiesław Pieregorólka and many others.
In 2009, Grzegorz Nagórski Quartet’s album recorded with Tomaszewski, Dedication, received the Fryderyk Award in the Best Debut of the Year category. In the same year, Tomaszewski became a music producer, band manager, arranger, and pianist in the Kaczmarski & Jazz project. Premiere performance of the project took place at the Jazz Jamboree Festival in 2009. It involved leading Polish jazz vocalists – Anna Serafińska, Maria Sadowska, and Janusz Szrom. The concert was recorded and aired by TVP Kultura. The crowning achievement of the project was recording an album, released later in 2010.
The artist is also interested in electronic instruments and computer music production. The effects of this interest can be heard, among others, on the recordings of the band Damage Control (Damage Control and Magical Theater albums). Tomaszewski is also a member of Adam Bałdych’s band Imaginary Quartet.
He also deepens the art of playing Hammond organ. Apart from the recording of Przemysław Florczak’s Image Of My Personality and one track on Grzegorz Nagórski’s Over and Over, him playing this instrument can be heard in the recordings of Wojtasik / Nagórski / Tomaszewski / McCraven Quartet, Maciej Sikała’s Trio, and in a blues project by Jarosław Śmietana and Bill Neal. In 2014, the album Image of my Personality by Przemysław Florczak Quartet was nominated for the Fryderyk Award in the Phonographic Debut of the Year category.
In 2011, Tomaszewski created his own band The Gentlemen, which represented Poland during the European Culture Festival in Algiers. Its performance was well received by the audience, which resulted in the Polish embassy in Algiers inviting the group again to the next edition of the festival. This success inspired Tomaszewski to form another organ trio with Andrzej Gondek on electric guitar and Paweł Dobrowolski on drums. In the same year Tomaszewski was invited to participate in Sławomir Jaskułka’s Chopin For 5 Grand Pianos project, with which he gave concerts in Singapore and China.
In 2014, Tomaszewski’s cooperation with an excellent vocalist Wojciech Myrczek resulted in the release of the album Myrczek & Tomaszewski – Love Revisited. It won wide recognition of critics, as well as from outside the jazz circle. The project was also presented abroad, among others in Switzerland – at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Russia during the Conservatory Night in St. Petersburg, in Bulgaria during the Sofia Jazz Peak Festival, in Slovenia during the Celie International Jazz Festival, in France during the Jazzy Colors Jazz Festival.
Artists and bands with whom Tomaszewski collaborated and who have recorded albums with him include Michael ‘Patches’ Stuart (album On Fire featuring Kenny Garrett, Henryk Miśkiewicz, George Duke, Nick Smith, Paul Jackson Jr, Marek Napiórkowski, Raul Midon, Dorota Miśkiewicz, Poogie Bell, and Michał Dąbrówka), Marta Król (The First Look), Iwona Kmiecik (Kolor Szlachetności – The Colour of Nobleness, trans. MG), Daniel Popiałkiewicz Quartet (Solstice), Marcin Wawrzynowicz Sextet (Missa Pacis), and Krzysztof Urbański Quartet (Krzysztof Urbański). Apart from regular cooperation with the above-mentioned musicians, Tomaszewski is occasionally invited to participate in concerts of Michał Urbaniak, Urszula Dudziak, Karen Edwards, Dorota Miśkiewicz, Marita Albán Juárez, Ewa Uryga, Anna Gadt, Krzysztof Popek, Stanisław Fijałkowski, Jerzy Główczewski, Marek Dykta, Krzysztof ‘Puma’ Piasecki, Bronisław Duży and others. Paweł Tomaszewski has also performed with the following foreign artists: Steve Vai, Maria Schneider, Rick Margitza, Walter Smith III, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Michael ‘Patches’ Stuart, Mack Goldsbury, Xantone Blacq, Cleveland Watkiss, Otto Williams, Troy Miller, Judy Bady, Ed Neumeister, Steve Logan, Yaron Stavi, Josh Lawrence, Jacques Seguin, Brian Fentress.
His episodic cooperation with Rozrywki Theatre in Chorzów and Muzyczny Theatre in Gliwice allowed him to prove himself in the Dyzma and Chicago musical performances. Thanks to his collaboration with Piotr Machalica, which resulted in a recording of their concert broadcast live in Polish Radio Three, Tomaszewski experienced the field of actor song, and concerts he played in a duo with Alicja Węgorzewska allowed him to face the challenges of classical vocal music. He has also cooperated with representatives of commercial music – Maciej Miecznikowski and Monika Brodka.
Tomaszewski’s fascination with Latin music resulted in his collaboration with Jose Torress, while his cooperation with the Bełchatów Gospel Singers choir allowed further development of his musical interests. With Mika Urbaniak’s band, he had the opportunity to test himself in repertoire from the border of soul, pop, contemporary r’n’b, and jazz. Tomaszewski also performed with Mieczysław Szcześniak, promoting his album Signs. For three years he was a member of the music band performing in a popular TV programme Tak To Leciało (That’s How It Went!, trans. MG), aired on TVP 2.
Paweł Tomaszewski is the composer of a piece for the jazz quintet and string orchestra Symphony of the Galaxies, commissioned by the Jazz Jamboree Festival. The work had its premiere in the auditorium of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw on 5th December 2013.
He has recorded music for such films as Closer To The Moon directed by Nae Caranfil with music by French composer Laurent Couson and The Closed Circuit directed by Ryszard Bugajski with music by Canadian composer Shane Harvey. He was the music manager of bands during many cultural events.
In 2013, he received a PhD degree in instrumentalism at the Academy of Music in Katowice, specializing in piano. Currently, he teaches at his home university and conducts classes at international workshops in various regions of Poland. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Jazz Section of the Board of the ZPAV Academy, which grants prestigious Fryderyk Awards.
Contact:
info@paweltomaszewski.com
http://www.paweltomaszewski.com/contact
www.paweltomaszewski.com
Update: December 2019.