Jerzy "Duduś" Matuszkiewicz (; 10 April 1928 – 31 July 2021) was a Polish

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

musician and composer, playing saxophone, clarinet and piano. Between 1950 and 1958, he was leader of the jazz group

Melomani Melomani (English: ''Music lovers''), also known as Hot-Club Melomani, was a pioneer Poland, Polish jazz band, created by the first self-styled Polish jazz musicians. It was founded in 1951 (or, according to other sources, in 1947) in Łódź, in t ...

. From 1965, he focused on composing music for films. He was a pioneer of the post-World War II jazz movement in Poland, regarded as a "Founding Father" of Polish jazz.

Life and career

Matuszkiewicz was born in

Jasło Jasło is a county town in south-eastern Poland with 36,641 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2012. It is situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), and it was previously part of Krosno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located in Lesse ...

and began playing jazz as a youth. He founded a jazz club at the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

at age 20, and played with the orchestra of Kazimierz Turewicz. A club

(music enthusiasts) was founded in 1947 at the

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

YMCA, a hang-out of nonconformist thinkers during the late 1940s. Musicians of the first years included Marek Szczerbiński-Sart, trumpeter , drummer Witold "Dentox" Sobociński, and Marian and . Matuszkiewicz came to Łódź to study at the new

Łódź Film School The Leon Schiller National Film School ( pl, Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna im. Leona Schillera) is a Polish academy for future actors, directors, photographers, camera operators and television staff. It was founded on ...

. He came to the club and joined the sessions. After only a few concerts, the YMCA was closed because the organisation was criticised for "debauching the youth and promoting imperialistic ideology using jazz music" at the end of the year. Matuzkiewicz founded and led a band in 1950, playing saxophones and clarinet with the former players and additionally pianist

Andrzej Trzaskowski Andrzej Trzaskowski (23 March 1933 – 16 September 1998) was a Polish jazz composer and musicologist. From the mid-1950s onward, he was regarded as an authority on syncopated music. Biography Early life and education Andrzej Trzaskowski ...

and bassist Witold Kujawski. Polish musicians were separated from developments of Western jazz, because the Stalinist regime considered jazz music as part of decadent American culture. They had no recordings and publications, therefore they played a repertoire that did not compare to Western standards. Critic Elliott Simon noted: The band was offered space to practise at the Film School, and during the first year, performed informal concerts at the Film School, in bars and afor private events, around once a week. When they received an invitation to play a concert in Warsaw at the Academy of Fine Arts, they named themselves Melomani. In 1952, pianist

Krzysztof Komeda Krzysztof Trzciński (27 April 1931 – 23 April 1969), known professionally as Krzysztof Komeda, was a Polish film music composer and jazz pianist. Perhaps best known for his work in film scores, Komeda wrote the scores for Roman Polanski’s f ...

, who had connections and made more concerts beyond Łódź possible, joined the band. They played at the first jazz festival in

Sopot Sopot is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, and has the status of the county, being the smallest city ...

in 1956. On 1 January 1958, they were the first Polish jazz band invited to perform at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. The group disbanded that year.

Until 1964, Matuszkiewicz performed both in Poland and abroad. In 1965, he began to mainly compose and conduct music for movies and commercials. He later resided with his wife, Grażyna, in Warsaw, where he died, aged 93.

Awards

Matuszkiewicz received the Commander's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

for outstanding achievements. In 2006, he was awarded the Gold Helikon medal from the Krakow Jazz Club. In 2021, he received an award for his life achievements at the

Polish Film Awards Polish Film Award, or Eagle ( pl, Polska Nagroda Filmowa, „Orzeł”) is a film awards ceremony given annually since 1999, with the first event held on 21 June, by the National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers (KIPA). Since 2003 they are given ...

gala.

References

External links

* * * Kałużna, Ewa
Jerzy "Duduś" Matuszkiewicz
(in Polish, biography, photos and videos) muzeumjazzu.pl 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Matuszkiewicz, Jerzy 1928 births 2021 deaths Melomani members People from Jasło Polish jazz musicians Male jazz musicians

Life and career

Awards

References

Further reading

External links