The History of Polish Avant-Garde Jazz of the 1950s and 1960s: Part 3 - Komeda, Trzaskowski, and Aftermath

Part 1

Part 2

Many critics describe pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda as the most important, popular, and influential Polish avant-garde jazz musician in history. Komeda was born in 1931, and started learning piano at a very young age during what was considered the romantic, or “catacomb” period of Polish jazz. Komeda was not his real surname, as he used the name as a pseudonym to separate his artistic life from his day job at a clinic. He began to participate in many be-bop and dixieland jazz jam sessions with other notable jazz musicians, such as Jerzy Grzewinski and 'Ptaszyn' Wroblewski. Eventually, Komeda helped form the Melomani jazz collective in 1947. This was a very influential group because they helped jazz thrive in the underground during its period of being banned under Stalin’s rule. After the ban was lifted, they also played popular jazz covers on the radio. The group made a notable performance at the Sopot Jazz Festival, one of the first landmark events in the history of Polish jazz after its initial ban (Radlinski). 

Komeda’s jazz band usually performed as a quintet or sextet. The Komeda Sextet became the first Polish group to exclusively play a modern form of jazz that was almost completely separated from the traditional dixieland style. In 1966, the Komeda Quintet released their only proper studio album, Astigmatic. The album was marked by its intensely technical and avant-garde song styles. The album pioneered a markedly European aesthetic for jazz that did not merely copy American artists. Astigmatic was considered a significant milestone for Polish jazz, and is considered by many to be the greatest in its genre. It consists of 3 long tracks, “Astigmatic”, “Kattorna”, and “Svantetic”. The sound of the album is dominated by its rapid improvisational melodies. The instrumentalists use their own styles and imaginations as they continue to play new melodies and scales, each of them adding their own personal flair to the recording. However, Komeda’s formal compositional elements can also be inferred while listening to the album; the instrumentalists know when to play together softly, or when to start building up the intensity. Komeda also gives each member of the quintet a chance to perform their own solos. Aside from improvisations, there are also moments of carefully planned harmony between band members. An example is a passionate saxophone solo that makes up the middle section of the title track “Astigmatic”. This section is followed by a sparse, tense, emotionally ambiguous double bass solo. A rhythmic drum solo follows, and then the whole band comes back together to end the song. While one album may seem like not enough for Komeda to be such an influential musician, he was also recognized for his live performances, collaborations, and prolific amounts of Polish film scores (Radlinski). 

The second most influential Polish avant-garde jazz pianist and composer was Andrzej Trzaskowski. He began his career in 1951 by joining the Melomani collective with Krzysztof Komeda. Later in the decade, he also helped form the jazz groups Jazz Believers and The Wreckers. Trzaskowski and his band also performed live in America and East and West Germany. Through these travels, he became inspired by the musical styles of other cultures, and decided to combine elements of their music with the evolving scene of Polish jazz. Trzaskowski’s music was best known for its fusion of Polish jazz and western classical music. This type of avant-garde jazz came to be known as third stream. His music blended serious, traditional styles with contemporary techniques of composition. His compositions also became more avant-garde as time went on (Slawinski, Culture.pl).

The most popular album by the Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet was their self-titled album. It was also known as Polish Jazz Volume 4. Polish Jazz was a prestigious label that ran from 1965 to 1989, which also published Komeda’s Astigmatic. The Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet features piano, double bass, trumpet, saxophone, and drums. The album often builds up an atmosphere of suspense, which transitions into loud and chaotic instrumental solos. The eclectic album also has quite a bit of variety in song structures and emotional content. The opening song, “Requiem dla Scotta La Faro”, starts with a mysterious, occasionally dissonant piano. The piano chords are sparse, and the bouts of playing have long silences between them. Each time the piano comes back, the music builds in intensity until all the band members are playing together loudly; this is followed by a collapse back down into the pattern of quiet, sparse, dark piano. The following 18-minute abstract track “Synopsis” uses similar elements of suspense and chaos, with more lengthy and melodic instrumental solos on the double bass and horn instruments. In contrast, the songs “Ballada z silverowską kadencją” and “Post Scriptum” are shorter and subtler, laid-back and relaxed piano-based melodies (Slawinski). 

Komeda’s compositions and Trzaskowski’s recordings represent how two different approaches to the jazz genre both represented the same anti-Soviet ideal. Komeda’s pioneering of a distinctively Polish aesthetic for jazz helped rebel against the oppressive Soviet communist culture that was being pushed by the government. Other musicians who incorporated elements of Polish folk into their jazz compositions helped create a sense of national pride to help people stand together during the revolutions of the Cold War. Trzaskowski’s approach was to blend classical western elements into his jazz compositions, which served nearly the same purpose. The third stream subculture of Polish jazz was one of many examples of the diffusion of Western culture to the East, which stood against a government trying to paint the West as a capitalist enemy. 

After the 1960s, jazz continued to thrive, become more avant-garde, and play a strong role in the anti-communist counterculture of Poland. Jazz clubs and concerts could be a gathering place for artists and fans who were opposed to the actions of the state. The combination of multiple grassroots anti-state cultural phenomena, such as that of jazz, ultimately led to the fall of communism in Poland in 1989. Jazz was not the main cause of the fall, but it was certainly a major catalyst. However, with the fall of communism and the rise of capitalism, jazz was losing steam; its avant-garde nature had no commercial value, and Polish audiences were mostly interested in Western-style pop. Despite this, some obscure but passionate experimental subcultures still formed. A new Polish avant-garde jazz movement known as yass arose in the 1990s; this movement was even more eclectic than the initial wave of jazz. Yass included influences of Polish punk and folk, and could be more eccentric and experimental. Even though Polish avant-garde jazz today is an esoteric underground subculture, the influence of the early works in the genre are deeply appreciated; the love for the works of Komeda and Trzaskowski continue to this day. 

Works Cited

Culture.pl. Polish Jazz - Freedom at Last. Culture.pl, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, 19 January 2009, https://culture.pl/en/article/polish-jazz-freedom-at-last Accessed 21 February 2021. 

InterContinental. Forbidden Bebop: How Eastern European Jazz Keeps Breaking All the Rules. InterContinental, IHG, n.d., https://life.intercontinental.com/sg/empathy-sg/forbidden-bebop-how-eastern-european-jazz-keeps-breaking-all-the-rules/ Accessed 21 February 2021. 

Jakelski, Lisa. Gorecki’s Scontri and Avant-Garde Music in Cold War Poland. The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 26, No. 2, University of California Press, Spring 2009, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jm.2009.26.2.205?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents Accessed 21 February 2021. 

Radlinski, Jerzy. Christopher Komeda (1931-1969). Komeda.pl, n.d., https://www.komeda.pl/indexa.html Accessed 21 February 2021. 

Slawinski, Adam. The Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet ‎– Polish Jazz Vol. 4. Polish Jazz, Polish Jazz Net, 2005, https://web.archive.org/web/20070824220846/http://www.polishjazz.com/pjs/4.htm Accessed 21 February 2021. 

The History of Polish Avant-Garde Jazz of the 1950s and 1960s: Part 2 - Development of the New Style

Part 1

Avant-garde jazz, while using the same types of instruments as previous forms of jazz, and some of the same playing techniques, took the genre in a completely different direction. Musicians in the genre would make the element of experimentation and unconventionality the foremost aspect of the music. The atmosphere of this music was often dark, chaotic, and perplexing. Some composers would use uncommon time signatures and craft extremely detailed and melodic compositions. A sub-genre of avant-garde jazz was free jazz, which eschewed all elements of traditional structure and rhythm completely, and consisted of an ensemble playing their instruments chaotically (Slawinski). 

One part of what made the Polish avant-garde jazz scene so unique was its combination of Eastern and Western musical elements (Jakelski, InterContinental). Composers borrowed elements of improvisation from Western artists, such as John Coltrane, but some others also incorporated the sensibility and instrumentation of local Polish folk into their jazz recordings. This was partly because American records were not very accessible to musicians, so they played by their instincts. However, the incorporation of traditional Polish elements into the music may have also represented a sense of national pride against a dominant Soviet government; Mycielski claimed that “composers should create characteristically Polish works whose emotional content would speak to society” (Jakelski). Even though avant-garde jazz was a largely instrumental genre, it still represented an anti-communist sentiment for many; the scene’s artists were not ashamed to spread music inspired by a capitalist Western culture. At the same time, the genre was also authentically Polish and free from Soviet propaganda. The genre’s playfulness and lack of boundaries also represented freedom, and set the scene for a counter-cultural rebellion to occur. 

Some attempts by critics to justify the Polish government’s support of the avant-garde scene try to use this fact to write Poland as an opposer of the Cold War. Western critics saw Polish avant-garde music as a strong symbol of resistance against communist rule. This contradicted a common stereotype that all music that came from communist countries was merely propaganda. Not all Eastern European countries had a government who supported the avant-garde scene as much as the Polish government did, which made the scene so unique (Jakelski). While many avant-garde jazz musicians certainly had an anti-communist sentiment, this was not the case with the Polish government themselves. Leaders such as Gomułka allowed jazz, but did not support its political rebellion. There was also a level of separation between avant-garde jazz musicians and the government, simply because the music was merely incomprehensible to the authorities. The music was mostly instrumental, and its cold, perplexing, and “crazy” image was enough for the government to simply leave them alone in a way (InterContinental). 

Part 3

The History of Polish Avant-Garde Jazz of the 1950s and 1960s: Part 1 - Background

Polish avant-garde jazz was a distinctive scene that was inspired by, but did not merely copy its western influences. The music played a significant role in the cultural anti-communist counter-revolution during the Cold War in Poland.

The history of Polish jazz starts in the 1920s. Jazz music had first been invented by African-Americans in the United States in the early 20th century, and became one of the first forms of truly popular music; it was danceable, its aspect of improvisation could be wild and unpredictable, and the practice of recording albums and pressing records was becoming more commonplace. The genre culturally diffused to Poland after World War I and the Polish-Soviet War. These events asserted Polish power and independence, but deepened the tension between Poland and the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Jazz continued to grow in popularity as an enjoyable medium in Poland for the next few decades (Culture.pl).

However, World War II was an extremely tumultuous time period for Polish culture, as Nazi Germany’s occupation of the country from 1939 to 1945 ended many Polish lives and ruined others. The end of the war only marked the beginning of another period of occupation. At the Yalta Conference, world leaders were negotiating the division of post-war European countries between the East and the West. American and British leaders surrendered Poland to the dominance of Soviet communist leader Joseph Stalin. The Soviet communist rule in Poland came along with strict bans on culture, to avoid spreading any images related to the capitalist West. Jazz music, having originated in the United States, was quickly banned because it was a symbol of the western enemy. The government did not allow artists to play jazz music on the radio or perform live music. Jazz continued to secretly grow underground, in private homes, and with the formation of the jazz ensemble Melomani in 1947 (Culture.pl).

Joseph Stalin died in 1953, which marked a significant shift for Polish culture. Legal restrictions on culture became more relaxed following this point, and jazz was able to grow significantly as a cultural force (Culture.pl). In 1956, the Sopot Jazz Festival marked the first emergence of jazz from an underground artistry to a major cultural scale, as well as the first legal acknowledgment of jazz. Other sources of spread were the magazine “Jazz” and official jazz clubs. More foreign jazz musicians were coming to Poland in the late 1950s and bringing their influences to the expanding genre. Jazz came to represent freedom, solidarity, and the joy of youth (Culture.pl).

However, even though jazz was allowed more by the government, there was still great political tension marking the genre. Protests against resource shortages and poor working conditions, starting in Poznan in the late 1950s, set the landscape for the content of music. Artists across all genres were increasingly making protests songs with anti-communist messages. Władysław Gomułka became the leader of Poland in 1956 as the head of the Communist party. Many of his actions appeased communists and did not wish to change the system. He instead opted for a “Polish road to socialism”. Gomułka still continued the pattern of more relaxed guidelines for cultural expression. As the conflicts between the citizens and the state grew, which continued to be reflected in popular music, jazz eventually evolved into 3 different styles: dixieland (traditional), straight-ahead (mainstream), and avant-garde (Culture.pl). 

Part 2