Concert of SBB, photo Paweł Kuraszkiewicz
This year's edition of the international jazz festival will bring tributes to Jerzy Milian, Andrzej Trzaskowski and Krzysztof Komeda to jazz lovers attending the 6th Summer Jazz Academy.
At the club Wytwórnia in Łódż, the organizers will present features on the precursors of the Polish school of jazz: vibraphonist Jerzy Milian and pianist-composer Krzysztof Komeda, as well as Andrzej Trzaskowski and Mieczysław Kosz. In addition to the concerts, there will be an exhibition of photographs, meetings with artists, and film and theater events. This year’s festival also offers a four-day master class for musicians – the International Jazz Platform.
Bernard Maseli, photo from press materials of the festival
Since there is currently a second wave of enthusiasm for Jerzy Milian outside of Poland, the first jazz-vibes summit will be dedicated to him. This meeting of four vibraphonist on one stage - Bernard Maseli, Dominik Bukowski, Ireneusz Głykowi and Karol Szymanowski - will be accompanied by Israeli multi-instrumentalist Amir Gwirtzman. Józef Skrzek’s jazz-rock band SBB will play in Milian’s honor, as will the German jazz band Jazzanova, backing American vocalist Paul Randolph.
Józef Skrzek, photo Marcin Tomaszuk
To commemorate the 80th birthday of Andrzej Trzaskowski, the world premiere of the jazz ballet Nihil Novi, choreographed and staged by Krystyna Mazurówna, will be performed.
Krystyna Mazurówna, archive photo
The high point of the festival should be the Krzysztof Komeda homage concerts. Leszek Żądło’s European Jazz Ensemble will play an unprecedented selection of Komeda’s compositions from the musical Thrown Out of Paradise (1969), reconstructed on the basis of newly discovered manuscripts in the Netherlands. The Turkish musicians from Voltage Control Project will also present a unique project consisting of piano compositions written by Polish composers for Roman Polański’s films.
The Summer Jazz Academy will end with the first Polish-language presentation of Komeda’s project My Sweet European Homeland, directed by Michał Passendorf and performed by actor Andrzej Seweryn and the Jan “Ptaszyn” Wróblewski Band. The music, composed to accompany outstanding Polish poetry, including works by Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Tadeusz Różewicz, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Zbigniew Herbert and Stanislaw Grochowiak, was written in 1967, just before Komeda left for Hollywood to work with Polański.
RGG, photo Gosia Frączek
Wytwórnia also hosts sets by Grazyna Łobaszewska, Iwona Kmiecik, Kalina Kasprzak, Kuba Badach, the Piotr Kałużny Quartet, Jerzy Milian, Andrzej Dąbrowski, the Polish Jazz Quartet (France), Maciej Obara, Ole Morten Vaagan (Norway), Gard Nilssen (Norway), Tom Arthurs (UK), Dominik Wania and Mark Kądziela.
More about the program: www.toyastudios.pl
Sources: press materials, ed. JN, 04/07/2013
Translation: LB 05/07/2013