On Wednesday, February 22nd a Jazz Blizzard hits the town of Bielsko-Biała, located in the heart of the Beskidy Mountains. Remarkable Polish jazz performers as the Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski Sekstet and the Andrzej Zubek Quartet are joined on stage by world-famous jazz stars providing jazz fans from around the world ZumbaLand from Georgia, NoJazz from France, Ambrosse Akinmusire Quartet from the USA and Concha Buika from Spain. American's Maria Schneider is set to perform with the Silesian Jazz Orchestra, while saxophone legend Archie Sheep and German pianist Joachim Kuhn round out a star-studded programme.
The festival takes place every year since1999, bringing together local artists, musicians, photographers and journalists. Two great figures of Polish jazz scene - Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, musician, composer and journalist, and Paweł Brodowski, editor-in-chief of the leading Polish jazz magazine Jazz Forum - are the main protagonists behind the event. The winter mood of the festival is enhanced by the final concert which takes place at Szyndzielnia Mount Lodge (over 1000 meters above see level) where the participants arrive by cable car and walk through snow with blazing torches in the evening.
That same week the town of Toruń will raise the temperature of winter days by opening the 12th edition of Jazz od Nova (Jazz Anew) Festival. As one of the youngest jazz festivals in Poland (started in 2001), the event combines classic jazz with experimental performances. As such, it has gained loyal fans and attracted remarkable jazz performers representing the local and international jazz scene. The festival opens with Henryk Miśkiewicz Full Drive 3 featuring American trumpeter Michael Patches Stewart. Jazz performers featured at this year’s edition include: Mikołaj Trzaska with the British Riverloam Trio, Piotr Wojtasik’s quintet of Polish, Hungarian and German musicians, and Tomasz Stańko’s quintet of Polish and Finnish artists. Polish clarinettist Wacław Zimpel performs accompanied by Austrian drummer Wolfgang Reisinger, while the Polish trio Antymos Apostolis is joined by Cameroonian bass player Etienne Mbappe.
The event combines mainstream jazz with improvised performances, along with the aim of reviving a deep-rooted tradition of playing jazz in students’ clubs in Poland which goes back to Kraków and Warsaw jazz clubs of the 1950s and 1960s.
The 12th Jazz Od Nova Festival takes place in Toruń from February 22 to February 25, 2012. The concerts will take place at students’ club: Klub Pracy Twórczej Odnowa. For more information, see: www.jazz.umk.pl.
The 14th Lotos Jazz Blizzard takes place in Bielsko-Biała from February 22 to February 26, 2012. For more information visit: www.zadymka.pl.
Source: www.zadymka.pl, PAP, www.rp.pl, www.duzeka.pl