Tomasz Szukalski

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

Tomasz Szukalski was born in 1947 in Warsaw and died in 2012 in Piaseczno, Poland. He was a Polish jazz saxophonist, composer and improviser. He studied clarinet, but preferred to play tenor and soprano saxophone, and sometimes bass or baritone saxophone. His playing was often compared with that of John Coltrane and Ben Webster. He graduated from the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. His career began in the jazz orchestras of Zbigniew Namysłowski and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, alongside Tomasz Stańko and Michał Urbaniak, among others.

Music and breakthrough

In the 1970s his playing became freer and more avant-garde. He worked with Stańko and with Scandinavian musicians such as Edward Vesala, Arild Andersen and Terje Rypdal. In 1975 he played on Stańko's album Balladyna for ECM, and in Poland he performed with the rock group SBB. In 1977 he founded his own group The Quartet, which gained a great reputation. With SBB's leader Józef Skrzek he made the album Ambitus Extended. During martial law he played with Wróblewski again. In 1984 he recorded Time Killers with Wojciech Karolak and Czesław Bartkowski, a record that was an instant hit.

Influence

After 1990 he often worked with the young pianist Artur Dutkiewicz and performed in changing line-ups. For a long time he lived in a simple hut outside Warsaw. Around 2009 Dutkiewicz organised benefit concerts for him, called The Day of the Jackal. Szukalski is regarded as a celebrated master of the tenor saxophone in Polish jazz.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1986Tina Kamila
• 2006Time Killers