Jerzy Matuszkiewicz was born in 1928 in Jasło, although his parents moved to Lviv shortly afterwards. He came from a very musical family – although his father was a lawyer, he spent his spare time playing the piano, violin and zither. He was also a member of a mandolin orchestra, which were very popular at the time. The Matuszkiewicz family spent most of World War II in Lviv. Despite the daily terrors, the boy learned to play the accordion during this period. His first encounter with jazz took place in Jasło, where his family found refuge in 1944. There he met Kazimierz Turewicz, who came to town with his orchestra.
The time of pioneers
After the war, the Matuszkiewicz family settled in Kraków. Jerzy began studying the clarinet at a secondary music school under the guidance of Professor Rudnicki, a soloist at the Kraków Philharmonic. He also learned how to play in the evenings, visiting local venues that were still in private hands at the time. At the always-crowded Casanova club, he found Turewicz, whose favour he won by taking photos of his orchestra's performances. During these concerts, Matuszkiewicz learned what improvisation was. He also asked the saxophonist Józef Łysak to teach him how to play the alto and tenor.
In 1946, Matuszkiewicz founded his first band. Despite learning to play wind instruments, he played the accordion. It was in this ensemble that Matuszkiewicz met the double bass player Witold Kujawski. Not only would he later form the band Melomani with him, but he would also be the owner of the apartment where the most vital jazz concerts of the so-called catacomb period would be held. Kujawski will also go down in music history as the discoverer of Krzysztof Komeda's talent.
After playing in his band for a year, Matuszkiewicz was recruited to Turewicz's orchestra. He performed there as the fourth saxophonist. He also played accordion and clarinet there. He recalled that period in an interview with Krystian Brodacki for Jazz Forum:
During the year and a half, I spent in the orchestra, I've learned all the basics of jazz music, fluent note reading, and the skills of tuning in with other instruments. [...] In 1948, I was already a professional musician, with the ability to play jazz, although it was still not clear on the Polish market what jazz was.
At that time, he was already referred to as Duduś after the hero of humorous drawings by Gwidon Miklaszewski published in Dziennik Polski, which the jazzman supposedly resembled.
After the war, the YMCA was revived in Poland. Jazz and music clubs played a vital role in its activity. Its Kraków branch opened in 1948, and Matuszkiewicz became the artistic director of its affiliated jazz club. The club organised not only concerts but also lectures and sessions. There was a great demand for the latter, as original music records were generally impossible to purchase at that time. In the club, Kraków-based musicians performed works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman, amongst others. During the same year he joined the club run by the YMCA, Duduś began performing at the Gospoda Aktorów venue, where he shared the stage with Marian Radzik (piano), Janusz Szewczyk (violin) and Zdzisław Załęski (drums).
