Miłość

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

Miłość, which means 'Love' in Polish, was a Polish band from the yass scene, a distinctively Polish strand of free jazz. The group was founded in 1988 by Ryszard Tymon Tymański, a double bassist and guitarist and the former leader of the new wave band Sni Sredstvom Za Uklanianie. The music was free jazz with avant-garde influences. Out of it came, among others, the jazz bands of the Tricity, the area around Gdańsk, and Bydgoszcz, and a style that came to be called yass.

Music and breakthrough

The line-up consisted of Tymański on double bass and vocals, Mikołaj Trzaska and Maciej Sikała on saxophone and Jacek Olter on drums. Jerzy Mazolewski played clarinet until 1991, after which the pianist Leszek Możdżer joined that same year. Their albums included Miłość in 1992, Taniec smoka in 1994 and Asthmatic in 1996. With the jazz musician Lester Bowie they recorded two albums: Not Two in 1995 and Talkin' About Life and Death in 1999. The band ceased to exist after Olter's death in 2002.

Influence

Miłość showed that free jazz in Poland could develop a distinctive, rough and playful sound, with punk and the avant-garde in its approach. Those who see the group as a beginning will find in it the roots of an entire generation of Polish jazz musicians, among them Możdżer, who later built an international career of his own.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1992Miłość
• 1994Taniec smoka
• 1996Asthmatic
• 1999Talkin’ About Life and Death
• ?Milosc
• ?Not Two
• ?Taniec smoka

See also

• Talkin’ About Life and Death