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Adam Makowicz

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Adam Makowicz is a Polish pianist and composer who plays jazz and classical music. He was born Adam Matyszkowicz in 1940 in Hnojník, in the Silesian border region that now lies in the Czech Republic. He grew up in Poland and studied classical music at the Chopin Conservatoire in Kraków. Under the communist regime, freedom and improvisation were not looked upon kindly. Even so, he chose modern jazz and became a touring jazz pianist, with a regular spot in a basement club in Kraków.

Music and breakthrough

In 1977 he made a ten-week tour of the United States, organised by John Hammond. He then recorded a solo album for CBS and settled in New York. In the 1980s, after the imposition of martial law, he was not allowed to travel to Poland. Later he moved to Toronto. His records include Winter Flowers from 1978, The Name Is Makowicz from 1983, Naughty Baby from 1987 and Reflections on Chopin from 2003. He recorded more than thirty albums.

Influence

Makowicz makes his own arrangements of Chopin, Gershwin, Berlin, Kern and Porter. He played with major symphony orchestras in Warsaw, Moscow, Washington and London. His playing is known for finesse, inventiveness and technical virtuosity. He shows that jazz and classical music can speak the same language, and he built bridges between worlds that politics had long kept apart.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his Plays Gershwin or another Gershwin piece and notice how a familiar melody becomes, in his hands, a jazz piano number with turns of its own.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists