Paweł Brodowski: Hello there! My name is Paweł Brodowski and you’re listening to Rebel Spirits, a podcast about a group of artists, dreamers and freethinkers from behind the Iron Curtain, who sought freedom in the art of improvisation.
Today we’re meeting Adam Makowicz, a jazz piano virtuoso who was supposed to become a classical pianist until he heard a few jazz records sent from Canada. From that day on, there was only one music on his mind - jazz. Even when he’s playing Chopin. I met with Adam on Boxing Day back in December 2020 and we tried to dissect his style and discography during a long afternoon discussion.. Coming up on Rebel Spirits!
Adam Makowicz: Well, I grew up with my mother. She was a very persuasive woman. And she said that we have to learn the piano (…) it's the most important instrument, and in the center of our home there was a piano, and we used to listen a lot of piano music, from radio, during a Chopin's Competition we used to listen every day. (…)
P.B: Adam’s mother was herself a piano player and a singer. She insisted that Adam practice every day.
A.M: It was unfortunate at that time. Because I was young. I wanted to play ball with my friends. Go outside. Not sitting and doing boring stuff. Practicing scales and everything. It was terrible. (…) the first step is always the most difficult for young people. For children. But later I started to enjoy classical music. (…)
P.B: One day Adam met Czesław Gawlik, a musician and manager of the local cultural center in Rybnik, and most importantly he was a huge jazz fan. He had relatives in Canada and they’d sent him some jazz records.
A.M: (…) he said "listen, come to my house I have some recordings of wonderful pianists" and I said "Wow, great". And it was the first time I heard Art Tatum. Art Tatum was the guy who change my mind at that time. I said, I want to play such beautiful music like Art Tatum. But I never tried to play like him, imitate him. However, I absorbed some feelings of running, arpeggios like Art Tatum, because I thought, "This is exciting!", you know?
P.B: Like all the other Polish musicians fascinated by jazz, Adam started to listen to Willis Conover’s “Jazz hour”.
A.M: Yes, I used to listen when I was in Poland, every night. We just listen only radio, and we tried to imitate, and learn a little bit some songs and then we tried to improvise like we've heard from the radio. I think it was good school to use your memory, to memorize as fast as you can. You have opportunity to listen one time, this thing, as many notes as you can remember, and try to play a piano like you've heard your idols. Musicians that you enjoyed. You know. Musicians that you enjoy.
P.B: Willis was the first introduction, first abc, first jazz academy, he played... what did he play? He played: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck
A.M: Duke Ellington particularly, I loved this big band at that time. I remember I bought, one time, record, that was in Cracow. (…) And it was so expensive, 400 zł. I remember. A Duke Ellington recording. And I thought I must buy this record. And I collected some money. I didn’t eat for a few days, because I didn’t have enough money. But I had this recording. But I didn't have a tape recorder. So you know. I mean, it was long play. This was the most beautiful music in it. But I couldn't listen to it. Turntable. (…) It was enough for me that I knew it. That this is the most beautiful music, here. I am carrying with me.
P.B: You were a rebel. You left home, you told your parents "I am not going to study anymore, I'm leaving the place. I'm going to another town.
A.M: I didn't have another choices. Just only to leave the house. My parents didn't want me to play that kind of music. They say that this is terrible music. So they were absolutely against it.
P.B: Adam left school and moved to Krakow. It was difficult for a young musician to rent an apartment so he decided to move into Helicon - a jazz club, where he could live and breathe jazz day and night for free.
P.Bi: Is it true that you slept under the piano?
A.M: Sometimes under, sometimes on top of the piano (laugh).
P.B: So you had a key to the club, and at night the club was your home.
AM: It was not bad, except that in winter time it was quite cold. But in summertime it was fine. At least there was a piano close to me. The piano was my most important thing at that time.
P.B: Soon enough, Adam started playing with two other protagonists from our series: Urszula Dudziak and Michał Urbaniak.
A.M: Michał called me, that he wants to form a band. I said „great!”. „Why not?”. So we started to play together. Michał brought some terrible instruments. Like a toy (?) I started to do some experimenting with different kind of sound. And then we started touring in west germany at that time. And Benelux, different kind of countries Scandinavian countries. At the same time electronics started to (?) new instruments. Keybords, other instruments, ecoplex, whatever they called it. Michał was crazy about this new stuff. To make more interesting. Looking for different kind of sound. I was for some time also interested. Michal infected me, with this "listen, maybe we can find some interesting sound". I bought a Fender Rhodes - it was a good instrument. I enjoyed it. But it was quite heavy. Let me tell you.
P.B: In our previous episode, Urszula mentioned that she was very fond of playing with Adam, and at every concert they had a moment on stage just for them.
A.M: I enjoyed it for some time. Particularly with Ursula, who at that time she also started to use some electronics. Different kind of sound. Musically she was really. Her imagination went a little bit like my own. About sound. How it should be. How to create together. Very often we played together without Michael, drums, bass. Just Ursula and me.
Michał decided that we should record this duo. (…) I thought that she was most musically talented, in our band.
Music playing - Composition: Darkness and Newborn Light, Artist: Urszula Dudziak and Adam Makowicz, Album: Newborn Light
P.B: This album was called "newborn light". I remember it received a five star review in "Downbeat". (…)It was a sensation.
DownBeat is an american jazz magazine. The reviews section, where critics rate albums on a 1 to 5 star scale, still remains one of the most highly regarded in the world.
A.M: Well it was music, i would say, intuition music, right? It happened and we just started to play without any idea what to play. Let's see what happened and so that's what happened. (...) . You take a road and you don't know where you finish. Where you go.
P.B: Would you agree that freedom and free spirit are part of this music called jazz.
A.M: Freedom is how I play the song. Melody line which is very, very important. All jazz musicians would say the same thing. How you play the melody line - it's you. It comes from the heart. From your imagination. Or something that is individual, very personal. They know these songs. They know what it's all about. And improvisation is another thing that we play in the middle of this piece, during concerts. And this is freedom, because it's not prepared. It's just happened in the right moment, on the stage, together with the audience. It depends of the felling of the space, room, or wherever it is. A piano. And the mood of the musicians. If I'm talking about myself. So particular moment. So sometimes the interpretation is a little different. Each concert i play is differently. Using dynamic - which is very important for me as a soloist. Because with trio, somehow pianists are limited. I'm talking about dynamic, which makes music interesting. Without dynamic, that's what i wanted to teach young musicians in Poland, that dynamics is really very important element to make music more interesting and more beautiful. So this is something, that I call freedom not only in playing melody which is a canvas for how I improvise this melody but also how I play this melody. You put your feeling into it. You put your groove, your pulse into it. That makes, what i call free interpretation. You feel free, to do whatever you want to do.
P.B: “Newborn light” landed in John Hammonds hands, the legendary record producer linked to countless household names. He decided to invite Adam to New York.
A.M: That’s exactly what happened. I think Michał came to John Hammond. He brought records of a duo by Ursula and me (…)
P.B: John Hammond thought so highly of Adam that he named him the greatest piano virtuoso since Art Tatum and started actively helping him establish himself in the US. John brought him to Colombia, one of the most prestigious labels of that time and helped him get a contract. That’s how his album “Adam” came about. With its beautiful blend of standards as well as Adam’s own compositions it remains a milestone in his career and discography. It displays his virtuosity and endless love for the slightest detail in full blossom. Let’s listen to Chopin’s Willows from the album:
Music playing - Composition: Chopin's Willows, Artist Adam Makowicz, Album: Adam
PB: Adam Makowicz became known as the first Polish jazz virtuoso. His thorough classical education and incredible talent quickly made him become a concert pianist and outpass his older colleagues such as Krzystof Komeda and Andrzej Trzaskowski who did not study classical music before coming to jazz. At some point Adam stopped putting forward his technique and started searching for new sounds in details, dynamics and interpretation.
A.M: I was technically really great, and I used it a lot. I mean too much. It was too much really...
I was trained from the beginning as a solo pianist. My mother's big imagination how I might be great pianist.(…) I play differently than any classical pianist. (…) When I switched to jazz. (…) I was thinking from the beginning that, the piano was like an orchestra, and I knew it from the beginning, and I wanted to be a soloist. I played with a lot of different groups. Trying to learn different things. Different views, how I can cooperate with different musicians.
I needed experience playing with different kinds of musicians to learn better about music about improvisation. How we are supposed to play, to cooperate jazz music, as you share music with other colleagues or musicians you play with. But solo is something different. You have to come up with a straight idea. (...). but piano was created for solo playing, not like other instruments, like trumpet, like clarinet, saxophones, or singers. They need some other supporting musicians, to create whole music, rhythm, harmony, melody, solo instruments, like sax for instance. But piano, you can create all three elements at the same time. And I knew it from the beginning. Only problem was how to create my own sound. Piano instrument is very difficult because it is percussionist kind of instrument. (And) piano when you use two different keys it's separated, you cannot move smoothly, on the melody line. So you need a lot of techniques to do so. and I practice quite a lot, and I am still practicing, how to create the most beautiful sound. In general, you can say: how to play beautifully.
P.B: And what does it mean to play beautifully?
A.M: Well, first of all, you have to create this beauty. You need to have this ability to hear, before you start playing, to hear you idea, (...) to implement it into music. Your idea comes from inside you, from your soul, and your brain. I would add one more element. That's swing and another very.. maybe for me the most important factor in jazz music. What is jazz? I think Joahimm Berendt, sometime ago I read in a newspaper what he described what is jazz: jazz is the interpretation of the melody a specific way. You can feel this groove or pulse. When I've heard some wonderful singers like Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughan. How they interpret melody, and words as well, that's with swing in it.
P.B: By the end of the 1970s, Adam decided to take a shot at the biggest dream of every jazz player in the world - to move permanently to New York and to try make his name there.
A.M: It was a great time when I came in 77/78. It was plenty of jazz clubs in the New Yorks’ middle town. I played a lot at that time. Then they started to close. The rent went up. When Giuliani came as the mayor of NY, he started to clean up NY. And after his few years, they started to turn down some old buildings. Typical New York, 100 years old or older, buildings. People wanted to keep this history of Manhattan. But unfortunately it didn’t work and they build high-rises now. And today I don't recognize the midtown.
P.B: It was a strong inspiration for music, NY. You lived right in the center in a place called Manhattan Plaza. 43 street.
A.M: It was a great place. I was living, where before he died used to live Dexter Gordon, he moved from Europe, last several years he lived upstairs, in my building. And in the other building there was a drummer Victor Louis, and was bass player Charles Mingus. Paquito de Rivera was my neighbor, on the same floor. We used to play together.
P.B: Inspired by his new home, one of Adam’s albums was called “From My Window”. It reflected Adam’s love for the city and the society he was a part of.
Music playing - Artist: Adam Makowicz, Album: From my window
P.B: The very year this album was recorded, 1981, martial law started in Poland. Its aim was to keep the oppositionist Solidarity movement from gaining popularity.
A.M: I was waiting. I couldn't go back to Poland, They took my passport. In the consulate they told me: we can only give you a one way ticket. I said no, I'm a musician, I have to play, that's my living, playing music. I said no. It was a closed door. I couldn't go back until this system collapsed. (…)
I was without country. It was the only way I could travel around the country is to use american passport. That's when I decided to become an american citizen.
P.B: Adam was invited to take part in a widely-distributed American propaganda film “Let Poland be Poland”, where he advocated for Poland’s cause along with stars such as Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Paul McCartney and Orson Welles. The film had Frank Sinatra singing a Polish standard called “Wolne Serce”, which made a nice change from what you might expect.
P.Bi: Your repertoire was mostly standards. American standards.
A.M: That’s what people like to hear. In NY when you play your own compositions, people don't know how to listen. Because they don't know melody line, so they couldn't follow you when you improvise. Improvisation must be connected somehow with the melody line, with canvas, i would say, like when you paint. Canvas... So we connected somehow. And then people can enjoy your own way how you interpret melody. Different way. That's what is improvisation all about. Music.
P.B: At one moment you started to remember the music that you were grown with. Chopin.
A.M: It’s melody, beautiful melody, and it's very easy to adopt into the jazz idioms. Jazz way of playing. Bach, for instance, is the most difficult composer to improvise, because music, Bach is improvisation. You cannot improvise improvisation. So Chopin wrote so many beautiful melodies that are easy to remember. When you heard first time, it stays in your mind, in your soul. Somewhere inside you. That is the most beautiful material to use for improvisation. That is why Chopin, many jazz musicians who know some classical music, also, american musicians improvise Chopin. Even Art Tatum played one song, that was waltz.
P.B: In 2004, Adam performed in Carnegie Hall with a young rising star of Polish jazz - Leszek Możdżer. They both interpreted Chopin alongside American jazz standards.
Music playing: Composition: Prelude Np.24 in D Minor, Artist: Adam Makowicz, Leszek Możdżer, Album: Możdżer vs. Makowicz at the Carnegie Hall
A.M: The idea was a young generation and old generation. I mean me. As the older. Together to show american people. Two polish jazz musicians from different generations. That was interesting. Możdżer is a guy that has an imagination about music, about sounds. He is looking for different kind of sounds. Not me. I am looking for different sounds using only piano. And Możdzer is looking also including other instruments. He prepares differently piano. Put something on the strings. To find some different sounds (…) It fits together. Similar ideas to find a different kind of sound and put it creatively into music. It's fun for us.
P.B: “Fun” for Adam often sounds overwhelmingly complicated to even accomplished musicians.
A.M: I play with 4 pianos, together, many times in the US, with american pianists. I play with 8 pianists. 8 pianos they put on the stage in salt lake city. It was crazy, absolutely crazy. People enjoyed so much. It was so messy. It was too much. 8 Pianos. We played with Dick Hyman - 4 pianists. Each played 10-15 min solo. Then joined other pianist, then they played together 10 min also.
Each concert, I took some lessons from it. I always start to criticize myself. That I was not satisfied with myself. The same with recordings. I was never satisfied with them. I always want to go back to the studio and record again.
P.B: Today Adam Makowicz is still performing around the world and living across continents. He is the last of the generation of polish jazz musicians still living in America.
P.B: How do you do it, that you’re still in America after all these years, one foot in America, one foot in Poland?
A.M: My home is really NY. But when I am here, i feel my home is here. I am still in between. Balance. Music keeps me straight. Otherwise I would go crazy.
P.B: Your home is your piano, your home is your heart. You are a citizen of the world.
A.M: Sounds nice, citizen of the world (laugh) Polish people, we grew up with feeling that we need, "where are our roots?”, we feel these roots, we are connected. (…) You go back to what is yours, you say. (…) America gave me like second mother, gave me chance to, that I could master my music. In the US I started to really understand what it's really all about, this improvisation and music. And why I am on the stage, trying to give people something. I better know now how to handle this music and play beautifully and give people something that they could enhance their soul.
END
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