Trzaskowski, Andrzej (EN)

Trzaskowski Andrzej, *23 March 1933 Kraków, †16 September 1998 Warsaw, Polish pianist and jazz composer, conductor, musicologist, publicist and teacher. His grandfather Bronisław was a famous linguist, and his father Stanisław – a lawyer and music lover (he studied cello and piano at the Vienna Conservatory). At the age of four, Trzaskowski started playing the piano and took music lessons with O. Axeull-Łapicka and T. Ciejka in 1940–50. In 1948, he began working with Kraków jazz bands (including J. Borowiec and J. Szewczyk), and then with W. Kujawski, K. Turewicz, J. Matuszkiewicz and K. Trzciński (later Komeda). He played in T. Prejzner’s big band in 1949, operating at the Rotunda student club in Kraków. He began studying musicology at the Jagiellonian University in 1952, from which he graduated in 1957 with a thesis on Ch. Parker. In 1955–57, he learned the latest composition techniques with B. Schaeffer and also took private studies with E. Rudnik at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. From 1952, he was associated with the Kraków group Melomani, with whom he performed at the 1^st Jazz Festival in Sopot in 1956. In 1958, he founded the Jazz Believers band (performing at the 1^st Jazz Jamboree in 1958), and in 1959 – The Wreckers. He moved permanently to Warsaw in 1960. During the Jazz Jamboree in 1960, Trzaskowski’s trio accompanied S. Getz (the material was recorded on 31 November and later released on an album). In 1962 he received a scholarship from the American State Department and together with The Wreckers he left for the United States, where he gave concerts, among others, at festivals (Washington Newport) and in jazz clubs (including the Village Vanguard in New York). After returning to Poland, the band changed its name to Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet. In 1962, the group performed in West Germany and at the Jazz Jamboree (the first performance of Nihil novi with trumpeter D. Ellis as soloist). In 1963, Trzaskowski’s quintet toured West Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, and in 1964 gave concerts in the GDR and Belgium. In 1965–67, the group included the American trumpeter T. Curson (a tour of Germany, a jazz festival in Nuremberg, the album Andrzej Trzaskowski Sextet featuring Ted Curson: Seant). In 1966, Trzaskowski played in Copenhagen (among others with A. Farmer), in 1968 he performed at the festival in Bologna, and then in Pori (including concerts with P. Woods and L. Thompson). In the years 1965–70, he was a lecturer at jazz workshops organised by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk radio station in Hamburg; for the needs of these courses, he wrote about 20 pieces and was also responsible for the programme and selection of performers. During the Jazz Jamboree in 1968, he performed the piece Music on the dominant with a small second and fourth at the National Philharmonic, and at the Jamboree in 1970, he presented Double for jazz quintet and audiotape. In the years 1971–74, he performed and recorded with the Jazz Studio of the Polish Radio; during this period, he also hosted the Spotkania z jazzem on TV Kraków. In 1972–74, he worked in the music department of the Polish Radio and Television as an editor responsible for jazz music. In 1972, he won 3^rd prize (1^st and 2^nd were not awarded) in the composition competition of the Radio and Television Committee and the Polish Composers’ Union (ZKP) for the ballet music Nihil est. In 1974, he became the manager and artistic director of the Polish Radio and Television Studio S-l Orchestra, to which he engaged the best Polish jazz musicians; until 1991 (the year of the band’s dissolution), the big band made about a thousand recordings and gave concerts in Poland and abroad. Since 1992, Trzaskowski lectured at the Jazz Department of the F. Chopin State Secondary School in Warsaw. In the last years of his life, he was exclusively occupied with composing. He was a valued journalist, publishing in the magazine “Jazz,” “Jazz Forum” and in the foreign press; he collaborated, as the author of the introduction and jazz entries, with the Lexicon of 20^th-Century Composers edited by B. Schaeffer (2^nd vol., Kraków 1963–65), he was also a member of the editorial committee, scientific editor of the jazz musicians’ section and author of jazz entries in the PWM Music Encyclopaedia. He received numerous awards and distinctions in Poland and abroad (including the 1993 Dutch Stemra Music Award for film music).

Trzaskowski was one of the most important and distinguished figures on the Polish jazz scene, a forerunner of the latest trends and the first artist to successfully tour the United States; his music and achievements contributed significantly to the high position of Polish jazz in the world.

His comprehensive education, talent, broad interests and open mind allowed him to fulfil himself in many fields. From the beginning of his career, he was simultaneously active as a pianist, composer, arranger, leader of his own groups, jazz theorist, publicist and music reviewer. He was a declared modernist; he emphasised many times that he was a supporter of absolute progress in art. After the “traditional” episode, he quickly became known as an artist oriented towards new trends – the music of Parker, Gillespie, and Mulligan (he was the leader and arranger of the second, “modern” line-up of Melomani). With The Wreckers, he drew on the hard-bop style, particularly that of H. Silver, whom he considered the leading pianist, composer and reformer of jazz in the 1950s. In the early 1960s, he began to gradually modernise his craft – for years fascinated by the dodecaphonic technique, he used it for the first time in the composition Nihil novi, a piece situated in the style of the Third Stream (attempts to combine jazz with contemporary music were undertaken at that time by B. Schaeffer, W. Kotoński, and later W. Kilar and K. Penderecki). He developed the concept of synthesis of avant-garde jazz with 20^th-century music (serialism, variable meters, modalism, tonal freedom, sonorism) in the three-part suite Synopsis. This composition was a turning point in Trzaskowski’s work and aesthetic views; from that moment on, he began working on his own, and as he claimed, a more disciplined version of free jazz than Coleman’s – he subjected subsequent elements of the piece to detailed revision, and then enriched and developed them based on the achievements of new music. The effects of these experiences were, among others, The Quibble and Seant for jazz sextet, built on contrasts (textural, dynamic, and agogic) between arranged sections and improvisations. In Music on dominant with minor second and fourth, he reduced the sound material to a minimum, creating almost unlimited freedom of interpretation for the performers. In later pieces (including Double and Magma), he introduced controlled and free solo parts, moved away from a constant beat, and used rich sound and texture; in all third-stream compositions, however, he paid attention to maintaining a strict jazz character. In addition to extended compositions for various ensembles, he also wrote smaller pieces in which he used conventional means (Ballada z Silverowską kadencją, Requiem for Scotty, Introwersja); he also reached for themes taken from Polish folklore (Oj, tam u boru, Jazz Variation on the theme of “Chmiela”). In film and ballet music, he showed great invention and stylistic flexibility, using means corresponding to the conventions of a given production. He was also a talented arranger of jazz and entertainment pieces. Trzaskowski’s texts on music (reviews, encyclopaedia entries, articles) are evidence of his extensive knowledge, erudition, analytical insight and ability to precisely convey information.

Important records: Jazz Believers (test pressing), 1957; The Wreckers – A the Last Moment, 1960; Stan Getz & Andrzej Trzaskowski Trio, 1961; Ronnie Ross & Andrzej Trzaskowski Trio, 1961; Andrzej Trzaskowski Quintet, 1965; Jazz Workshop, 1965; Andrzej Trzaskowski Sextet featuring Ted Curson: Seant, 1966; Jazz Workshop Ost-West, 1967; Studio Jazzowe Polskiego Radia – Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski: Sprzedawcy Glonów, 1973; Getz in Warsaw (CD), 1991; Don Ellis/Wojciech Karolak Trio (contains a 1962 recording of Nihil Novi performed by D. Ellis and the National Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by A. Markowski), series Polish Radio Jazz Archive, 2013; Andrzej Trzaskowski (archive recording from 1962), series Polish Radio Jazz Archive, 2013.

Literature: J. Radliński Obywatel Jazz, Kraków 1967; A. Sławiński Andrzej Trzaskowski. Szkic do portretu, “Jazz Forum” 1973 No. 3; E. Jost Europas Jazz 1960–1980, Frankfurt am Main 1987 (fragment about A. Trzaskowski entitled Andrzej Trzaskowski. Synopsis in “Jazz Forum” 1989 nr 1); Andrzej Trzaskowski. Życiorys and R. Kowal Mózg polskiego jazzu, “Jazz Forum” 1998 No. 10/11; R. Kowal Notacja muzyczna w polskich partyturach jazzowych. Funkcja, typologia, semantyka, Kraków 1999.