By Irena Stevanovska
Jazz has always played an important role in the Polish jazz scene. Since its
beginnings, when jazz was forbidden by the Soviet government, it was used as
a form of rebellion against an oppressed society, being played in
underground, hidden places. During those long and difficult times in the
country’s cultural history, there were many important jazz releases, which
the label Polskie Nagrania Muza decided to reissue in 2016 in a particular
order, across different volumes. The goal was to gather in one place all
the releases that have been very influential for many people.
If you listen
to the volumes in order as they were released, you can hear the shift
between different types of jazz. It starts with swing, continuing to bebop,
with the most interesting experimental fusion period emerging around the
late ’70s and ’80s. At that time, musicians began to create their own unique
styles that also reflected the areas they came from, releasing all their
thoughts, shapes, and feelings outside of themselves. During that time, the
scene grew with great artists who are well known among jazz fans. One of the
main figures on the Polish jazz scene since its early years has been
Krzysztof Komeda, experimenting since the ’60s, along with other important
artists like Tomasz Stańko, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Jan Wróblewski, and
others. This led to a different kind of experimental music appearing in the
’90s and 2000s, of course fitting its times but still influenced by the
experimental forms of their predecessors—forms of jazz mixed with hip-hop.
One of the most noticeable duos was Skalpel, wildly important to fans of
trip-hop and instrumental hip-hop. And there were other forms—some unusual
fusions between punk, electronic, and jazz—from bands like Pink Freud. This
leads to the next chapter and the natural evolution of jazz in Poland:
today’s scene, shaped by all these strong influences. During the 2010s, the
scene exploded with new artists weaving fresh forms of jazz, bringing us to
the enormous and vibrant Polish jazz scene of today. After spending years
listening and discovering new music from one of the greatest scenes in
Europe for this kind of music, it was hard to decide which artists to review
here, so I will continue to do so in a few volumes.
EABS – Reflections of a Purple Sun (Astigmatic Records, 2024)
EABS was one of the first bands of this kind on the Polish jazz scene in the
late 2010s, with their Puzzle mixtape EP and their debut album dedicated to
the legendary Polish musician Krzysztof Komeda. The name of their EP
reflects the combination of the underground with the classics of jazz —
that’s how all of the freshest bands and scenes came into existence, through
the fusion of different genres.
The Wrocław-based quintet released their latest album, Reflections of Purple
Sun, in 2024. This album, similar to their debut, is a re-imagination of an
album by another great musician of the Polish scene, Tomasz Stańko. The
album begins immediately and comes in strong. What’s interesting about EABS,
compared to most other musicians of the new wave of jazz, is that they still
carry the sound of traditional jazz — they just play an upgraded version of
it. Probably that’s why they call it “re-imagined.” I read in an interview
that the idea behind the debut album was to show respect toward legendary
musicians like Krzysztof Komeda, but not just to play his music — to build
something upon it. That’s what they do with all of their music: building
their own work on what their predecessors left behind.
It also seems their legacy is built on spirituality. They have an album
called Slavic Spirits, for which they said they got the idea from the Slavic
melancholy present in the music of earlier Polish jazz musicians. The
spirituality continues and can also be felt in an album they released
together with the Pakistani quartet Jaubi, In Search of a Better Tomorrow
(2023). In that album, both ensembles bring the spirituality of their own
roots and combine them together.
Besides Polish jazz, they constantly dig for inspiration from works of
legendary musicians from all over the world. They also created an album,
2061 (2022), where they built their music based on Sun Ra.
When it comes to Reflections of Purple Sun, even the cover photo evokes the
spirit of Slavic ambience from the past. After the energetic intro, there is
a track called Flute’s Ballad, which is ambient and slow. The calmness flows
into a track that one might say is quite untypical for this kind of band and
music: it completely transitions into a techno track. I’ve heard this before
on some of their albums — in the middle of an album, continuing their flow,
they just turn completely electronic. This gives a different perspective on
their abilities and emotions.
After the seven-minute break from jazz, with techno played on instruments,
the next track returns to their signature jazzy sound. Seemingly composed
for traditional jazz instruments — trumpet (Jakub Kurek), tenor sax (Olaf
Węgier), piano, synths and sometimes vocals (Marek Pędziwiatr), bass (Paweł
Stachowiak), and drums (Marcin Rak) — they allow themselves to play the flow
of traditional jazz. It’s kind of refreshing: having a rhythm section with
breakbeat drums and bass for electronic music, while the rest of the
instruments sometimes play traditional jazz.
Their latest album is a delight for every kind of jazz listener. It leaves
those who love the traditional sound happy and satisfied, while also
engaging younger listeners searching for blended sounds. The combination of
the inspirations they draw from and their own ideas — re-imagined —
contributes to the uniqueness that EABS has brought to the world jazz scene.
ńoko – Aurora (self-released, 2023)
Ńoko is one of those bands you find and think – how are they not touring
everywhere? Pretty unknown outside the Polish scene, and not one of the
first names you would find across when getting into Polish jazz – which is
wild, because they’ve got that energy right from the start. From the first
track of the album, it hits – a kind of futuristic traditionalism, so
well-blended you barely notice the transition. The four-member group drifts
between dark jazz, psychedelia and electronica.
They’ve written on their Instagram profile that jazz is dead, and they
buried it in distortion and reverb. I’d go with that – it really does
describe their sound. It’s a good description for someone listening them for
the first time.
What’s interesting for me on this album is that it starts with total chaos,
but sometimes it has that Toshinori Kondo trumpet feel. I’d say the brass is
mostly calm, while the drums are chaotic. Sounds like this is a thing in
contemporary Polish Jazz – the intense, extremely rhythmic drums combined
with deep bass lines, often sounding electronic.
The quartet brings an energetic vibe – every track has this fast pace, with
distorted and raw textures. Beside the drums (Tomasz Koper), bass (Maciej
Sadowski), trumpet (Dawid Lipka) and Sax (Michał Jan Ciesielski) moog and
synth sounds can be heard underneath, played by the bass and the sax player
– always in the background, always present.
In the middle of the album there’s a track (Dark) that starts, slower, with
lower energy – but even there, the depthness of the sound still stays. This,
to me, perfectly captures what the new wave of Polish Jazz sounds like:
energetic and alive, yet carrying the persistent darkness. It’s a heaviness
common in to contemporary jazz from much of the Slavic world – fast and
intense, but never quite joyful. Instead, it carries the weight people hold
inside without even noticing.
Aurora is an album I’d recommend to all kinds of jazz listeners. It’s got
something from every corner of jazz in it, but also feels like something
people outside jazz might love too.
Immortal Onion – Technaturalism (U Know Me Records, 2025)
This trio leans more toward the exprimental-electronic side of nu-jazz. Less
traditional, more exploratory. They’re contributing to the shaping of
futuristic jazz, the post-jazz sound that’s unfolding in our generations.
The group – Wojtek Warmiak on drums, Tomir Śpiołek on grand piano and
e-piano, and Ziemowit Kimlek on double bass, bass guitar and electronics,
pushes out the boundaries of what’s considered classical in every genre they
touch. This latest album weaves in elements of jazz, classical, electronic,
ambient and even deep-sub freequencies. The piano often carries the more
classical sensibilities (when it’s not creating 8bit sounds), layering
textures on top of eachother. The drums stay true to the jazz roots, with
the influence of the electronic breakbeats beat, marking the jazz influence
of this era, while the bass and electronics bring in a contemporary edge
sticking everything together.
It’s hard to capture all the emotions the album evokes, each shift in sound
brings a new wave of excitement, with every element adding something fresh
and unexpected. One track I’d set apart is Zeitgeist, which comes around the
middle of the album. The combo of everything happening in that track pretty
much shows how the band functions together. It begins with an electronic
swirl and a drum pattern that has that J-Dilla looseness to it – off-kilter,
stretched in time. A quiet, hesitant piano comes in, broken into fragments,
and then the track starts to expand. The drums grow bolder, the electronics
morph into something more organc, and suddenly, you’re in a state of flow.
The background becomes a kind of ambient wash, the sub-bass rumbles
underneath, and the piano steps out of its shyness, pushing into something
more fluid.
Their style feels like a bunch of new generation musicians came together,
mixed all the fresh directions nu-jazz has taken, and shaped into their own,
unique, sublime sound.
Feels like a great way to explore where sound can lead you, and all the
places it might open along the way.