Label, Genre, Era or Slavic Spirit: What is ‘Polish Jazz’?

okladki_polski_jazz.jpg, default, Collage of album covers from the Polish Jazz series, photo: Discogs.com

The term ‘Polish Jazz’ seems to cover a lot: it describes a particular era in Polish improvised music, as well as defines a genre’s distinctive features. It is also the name of an established publishing series. But shouldn’t every jazz album recorded in Poland be called ‘Polish jazz’?

The term ‘Polish Jazz’ used as a specific musical phenomenon first appeared in the 1960s. In the booklet for the reissue of the album Go Right by the Andrzej Kurylewicz Quintet, music critic Paweł Brodowski recalls the importance of the talented composer and pianist in coining this phrase:

During his numerous performances in the West, people started talking about the Polish jazz school. It has become a phenomenon such as the Polish School of Posters or the Polish Film School.

Thumbnail — Cover of 'Go Right' by the Andrzej Kurylewicz Quintet, 1963, photo: Discogs.com

Although this recording released by Polskie Nagrania Muza didn't have the annotation ‘Polish Jazz’, years later, it is regarded as album No. 0 of a celebrated publishing series that is still going.

Today the term can be understood in several ways. Apart from the obvious designation of any improvised music of Polish origin, it can be applied to the music scene that emerged in the late 1950s with its great stars Krzysztof Komeda, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Andrzej Trzaskowski and Jan Wróblewski, although it seems nobody considered making that name a bit more defined when christening the era. Finally, ‘Polish Jazz’ is the official name of a publishing series in which milestones of this genre were published from 1965 onwards.

The career the term has enjoyed in music criticism has led both journalists and artists to make numerous attempts to define it on a purely musical basis. According to many of them, Polish jazz should be considered a unique genre. Although tempting, such a perspective raises significant doubts.

Publishing fusion

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Melomani with saxophonist Jerzy 'Duduś' Matuszkiewicz at the 1st Jazz Festival in Sopot, 1956, photo: Tadeusz Kubiak / PAP

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The analogy between Polish Jazz and the phenomenon of the Polish Film School and the Polish School of Posters is accurate, in part due to the period of its development. The rise of these fields of art coincided with the Polish October, and they became symbols of the cultural thaw of the time. After the ‘catacomb period’ of Stalinism, jazz was now officially recognised by the socialist authorities. Musicians, who in the first half of the 1950s had been performing only in their friends' flats, were suddenly invited to the most prestigious concert halls in Warsaw. What is more, from 1965, the state-owned giant Polskie Nagrania Muza was releasing their works with a famous publishing series. Such proof of recognition could be compared to the official opening of the Warsaw Poster Museum in 1968, which testified to the authorities' recognition of the status of the Polish School of Posters.

Even if not all the albums published in the Polish Jazz series were met with universal critical acclaim, like Wajda’s films or Tomaszewski’s posters were, in the long run, they are considered an important voice in the history of European jazz. The catalogue includes recordings by artists later associated with important Western labels, who performed at major international festivals and shared the stage with giants of the genre. I am thinking of albums by such artists as Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak, Adam Makowicz or the band NOVI. Without a doubt, the most outstanding recording released in the Polish Jazz series is Krzysztof Komeda’s Astigmatic.

Astigmatic, album cover designed by Rosław Szaybo — Cover of Astigmatic by the Krzysztof Komeda Quintet, 1965, photo: press materials

Released in 1965, the fifth album from the famous publishing series is now considered a milestone of European jazz. Years later, Krzysztof Komeda's Astigmatic was praised by, among others, the authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette, the famous German producer and publisher Manfred Eicher and the British critic Stuart Nichols. The latter emphasised that the album by the Polish composer and pianist proved to be pivotal in the process of moving away from the dominant American approach to jazz and introducing new European aesthetics.

Even if the Polish Jazz series never produced an album of Astigmatic significance again over the next quarter of a century, many acclaimed recordings appeared as part of it. A total of 76 records were released here between 1965-89. Developing rapidly until the early 1980s, the series served as a proof of quality for the artists published. At the same time, the label wasn't limiting itself to a narrow circle of stars from this scene.

The longevity but also diversity of the series does not help much in defining what Polish jazz (as a genre) actually is. Both traditional jazz (Old Timers, Warsaw Stompers) and fusion (Laboratorium, Spisek Sześciu) were published under its banner. In addition to promoting singers who gave this music a song-like form (such as Ewa Bem, Stanisław Sojka and Marianna Wróblewska), Polish Jazz was not afraid to invest in free jazz artists (see TWET by Tomasz Stańko). As a result, the Old Metropolitan Band’s traditional jazz, Michał Urbaniak’s electric band, and Mieczysław Kosz’s romantic pianism are all placed next to each other in this catalogue. In jazz, this is called fusion.

This stylistic diversity was maintained when the Polish Jazz series was relaunched after 27 years. Since then, it has released albums by both veterans of the scene (Wróblewski and Namysłowski) and newcomers seeking new formal approaches (Jakub Więcek and Jerzy Mączyński). Despite the range that characterises the catalogue of this flagship series, the critics and musicians themselves are still looking for shared features of Polish jazz.

Melancholic melodies

The most striking example of Polish jazz’s search for identity in recent years is the album Slavic Spirits recorded by the Wrocław-based group EABS. This 2019 release was accompanied by a bound booklet containing an essay on the particular inclinations and aesthetic choices of the domestic composers of this music. In an impressive elaboration, its author Sebastian Jóźwiak refers to the roots of jazz as well as universal history, literature and even psychology to explain and explore the unique character of this scene. Looking for evidence of its singularity, the author reaches for the article: ‘An Encounter with Polish Music’ by Gerard Maibauer, whose translation appeared in the monthly magazine Jazz. The German journalist quoted by Jóźwiak wrote:

Polish jazz has very peculiar features, distinguishing it to the same degree as Polish classical music. In the development of music, they reveal themselves as a result of quite early detachment from the American model. [...] This process of detachment from the original took only five years in Poland, while in other countries it lasted for dozens of years. The specific properties of Polish jazz are based on three elements: 1) the Slavic musical tradition; 2) the sensitivity of the musicians themselves; 3) improvisational talents.

The first and second elements are the starting points for Jóźwiak's reflections on the nature of Polish jazz. The one concerning how the composers reach for traditional music is indisputable and easy to prove. Maibauer himself provides clear examples, writing about the works of Andrzej Trzaskowski, Zbigniew Namysłowski and the Hagaw group. This trend of drawing from folklore is present in Polish jazz to this day. Namysłowski continually derives from it, Irek Wojtczak and Marcin Masecki are inspired by it as well. The For Tune label has been running a publishing series devoted to this sort of crossover. What is more, Polish artists working at the crossroads of jazz and traditional music have recorded the most acclaimed albums in the field of improvisation in recent years. I am thinking of recordings of such artists as the duo Maniucha and Ksawery, the bands Żywizna, Polmuz or Lumpeks.

What is more difficult to grasp is the unique sensitivity that, according to Maibauer, characterises Polish jazz. Looking for its sources, Jóźwiak points at two main areas. One of them is lyricism, often inspired by the works of Polish 19th-century Romantics. To support his thesis, the author quotes Komeda's statement from 1967:

I think it is not irrelevant for my music that I was brought up listening to the Romantics, Chopin in particular. My music’s lyricism is often discussed in our jazz world. I do, in fact, give in to this common tendency of the Poles now and then [...].

stanko andrzej tyszko 01.jpg — Tomasz Stańko, photo: Andrzej Tyszko / tomaszstanko.com

The feeling that most strongly shapes the aforementioned sensitivity of Polish jazzmen seems to be melancholy. Whereas African-American free jazz artists relieved such deep sorrow in expressive outbursts, many Polish artists have preferred to contemplate it. This feeling was repeatedly linked to the tone of the eminent trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. On the occasion of the premiere of his 2004 album Suspended Night, the artist himself remarked on the characteristic mood of his music:

I am aware that my music is extremely melancholic, I like this feeling of contemplation and reflection, which seem to be characteristic of Poles.

In searching for the reasons behind this melancholic tone in Polish jazz, Jóźwiak explores Polish culture and history, including the cruel daily life under feudalism. He even reaches back to the violent Christianisation that mutilated the identity of the Slavs for many generations. However, this sadness may have origins that are closer to the modern era. After all, the majority of Polish jazz giants grew up during World War II. In a farewell to Stańko, who passed away in 2018, Paweł Brodowski wrote:

In his music one could hear the pain of existence, anger, complaint, longing, melancholy. In his tone, there was a scream and reflection, anxiety, suffering that did not originate from American blues but Slavic tradition, the Polish blues marked by our history and our experience. After all, he was a child of war.

Institution versus evolution

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Mikołaj Trzaska, 31.05.2005, photo: Michal Szlaga / REPORTER / East News

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About the associations with the term discussed here, I decided to ask Mikołaj Trzaska, one of the leading Polish improvisers and one of the co-founders of the Yass scene in the early 1990s, a movement that openly opposed mainstream jazz. After all, if you rebel against something, you should know why. ‘When I hear Polish Jazz, I immediately think of Komeda, the golden age of Polish jazz in the 1970s,’ recalled the saxophonist and composer. He told me:

I think of the generation of Zbyszek Namysłowski, Trzaskowski, Karolak, Ptaszyn Wróblewski, those times and some beautiful melodies and some cool records. I feel an emotional connection to this music because I grew up with it. This sticker on the records was a signpost for me.

According to Trzaska, contemporary Polish jazz too often tries to maintain the spirit of its glory days. There is a certain wit and swagger to it that used to provide some lightness in the bleak 1950s, but today appears artificial. According to the saxophonist, over the years, the jazz scene has become conservative. In his opinion, it has become kind of an institution, if not a church:

When I started going to jazz concerts and festivals, I quickly realised that this music is played in suits and white shirts. A lot of jazz musicians, especially in the 90s, made their living by playing at banquets. Because Polish business was opening up, and there was money in it. And yet jazz was supposed to speak out on social issues! That's what it was created for.

Fortunately, despite my efforts here, Polish jazz keeps evolving and continues to escape definitions. Today, for many young composers, the point of reference is Trzaska and the other precursors of Yass, not the giants of the 1960s. At the end of the day, there are as many versions of Polish jazz as there are Polish jazz musicians.

Although, there really is something to this melancholy.

Written by Jan Błaszczak, August 2021

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