The sound
of freedom
from Poland
Nieznany autor · Public domainArtists
of the canon
The figures who defined the sound of the Polish scene: pianists, trumpeters, vocalists and film composers.
Nieznany autor · Public domainKomeda
Pianist and composer, author of film music and the album Astigmatic, one of the founders of modern Polish jazz.
Tore Sætre · CC BY-SA 4.0Stańko
Trumpeter with a distinctive, raw tone, one of the most important European musicians on ECM.
Henryk Kotowski · CC BY 4.0Namysłowski
Alto saxophonist and composer, author of Lola, who blended jazz with Polish folk rhythms.
Dorota Koperska · CC BY-SA 4.0Urbaniak
Violinist and saxophonist, a pioneer of Polish fusion, active also on the New York scene.
Album
of the week
A weekly editorial pick: a record that changed the course of Polish improvisation.
Astigmatic
Astigmatic is regarded as the moment Polish jazz came of age and a point of reference for the entire European scene. Three expansive compositions reveal a language that is at once lyrical and bold, and entirely its own.
Clubs
and stages
The places where it all happens, from legendary cellars to contemporary festival stages.
Wikimedia Commons (kolaż) · CC BY-SA 4.0Warszawa
The capital of institutional Polish jazz: the Polskie Nagrania studios, the Jazz Jamboree festival, clubs and…
Wikimedia Commons (kolaż) · CC BY-SA 3.0Kraków
A city of jazz cellars and the early modern scene. The circle around the Helikon club and Piwnica pod…
Michał Słupczewski · CC BYGdańsk / Trójmiasto
The cradle of yass and the independent improvised scene. The Tricity underground of the 1990s gave Polish…
From the catacombs
to the world's stages
Polish jazz was born in secrecy, played in hiding during the Stalinist years. The 1956 thaw brought it into the open, and Jazz Jamboree made Warsaw one of the capitals of European improvisation.
Explore the full history ↗