Andrzej Trzaskowski

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

Andrzej Trzaskowski (23 March 1933 to 16 September 1998) was a Polish jazz musician, composer and musicologist. He was born in Kraków, began playing the piano at the age of four and formed his first jazz band at a young age. In 1950 he spent three months in prison on suspicion of belonging to an underground group. He then studied music history in Kraków and learned compositional techniques at the Experimental Studio of Polskie Radio. In 1957 he graduated with a thesis on Charlie Parker.

Music and breakthrough

In 1956 he was named best jazz pianist and later moved to Warsaw, where he played with The Wreckers. With that group he toured the United States in 1962, performing at Newport and the Village Vanguard in New York, among other places. He wrote music for Polish films, such as Night Train from 1959. Around 1963 he moved from bop to free jazz. In the piece Synopsis he used serialism, polymetre and controlled elements of chance. In 1966 he recorded the album Seant with the trumpeter Ted Curson.

Influence

Trzaskowski later taught in the jazz department of the music school in Warsaw. In 1995 he received the Cross of Merit. He showed that jazz in the Eastern Bloc of the 1960s could acquire an experimental voice of its own. He is the father of Rafał Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1967Seant