Great Poles

The Great Poles or the Hidden Contribution

 

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Krzysztof Komeda Trzciński


Living a passionate life in the time of Communist occupation

 

 

Living in a period when during your lifetime the most devastating war in the entire history of your planet strikes your country - and after such terrifying phenomenon it is taken over by Communist regime - is for some still not enough to lose motivation. They stubbornly pursue their dreams and fulfill their passion. The genius world-famous jazz pianist, Krzysztof Komeda was one of them.

 

Krzysztof Komeda with his best friend,

Marek Hłasko

Born on 27th of April 1931 in Poznań during the interwar period, in an economically developing Poland, he snatched a chance to learn certain skills and gain a base which turned out to be of service later is his life. His parents unveiled his talent even before he got to know about it, starting him with his first piano classes at the age of four. Right after reaching the age of eight he was already accepted to the Poznanian conservatory, one of the elite music schools.

 

He wanted to pursue his pianist career, but this plan was thwarted by the Second World War. During the war he managed to arrange private music classes with a tutor and, after the conflict ended, he continued his musical education in a public school from which he graduated in 1950. Nevertheless Krzysztof decided to enroll on Medical studies, but it did not kill his passion to produce music.

 

Quite the contrary, he was truly enchanted by jazz and pop music, which communist authorities looked towards very unfavourably. The person that introduced Komeda into the world of jazz was his colleague, Witold Kujawski, himself already a quite famous bass player . At the beginning, his musical career was limited to small jam sessions in a small apartment in Cracow where he played with other musicians like: Matuszkiewicz or Wasalek. This was the time of co-called " The Catacombs", when the government banned all the music that seemed "too Western". It was then that he started using the codename "Komeda", to hide his interest in modern music from suspicious eyes. After playing jazz music finally became legal in 1956, Krzysztof's talent could see the light of the day. He gave concerts in many places, and finally became famous for his performance at Jazz festival in Sopot during August 1956. His acoustic gift was quickly spotted by other profesional musical artists, even by those from abroad and that enabled him to expand his fan base beyond Polish borders. His first foreign concerts in Paris, Moscow and Grenoble made his art recognisable worldwide. Next stop for Komeda were Scandinavian countries, which later were Krzystof's regular stop at his concert tours. All of his performances at Swedish "Gyllene Cirkeln" and Dutch "Jazzhus Montmartre", turned out to be very successful and grabbed the attention of many recording companies. The famous Dutch films "Hvad mes os", "Kattorna", and "Sult" earned their popularity thanks to soundtracks made by Krzysztof. Later on, together with his band, "Komeda Quartet" Trzciński recorded "Meine süße europäische Heimat - Dichtung & Jazz" for the West Germany record company "Electrola". In 1968 Krzysztof Komeda Trzciński flew to Los Angeles in order to work with Roman Polański on soundtrack for "Rosemary's child". In the same year he was a victim of a fatal accident. He was pushed off an escarpment during drunk capers with his friend: Marek Hłasko. He fell on his head and later at the hospital he was diagnosed with hematoma.

 

He died on the 27th of April 1969, leaving behind his beloved fans and wife.

 

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