Zbigniew Namysłowski - Polish Radio Jazz Archives, Vol..36, Zbigniew Namysłowski Radio Sessions 1974-1995 (2023) Hi-Res

A year after the death of Zbigniew Namysłowski, an album dedicated to this artist is available for sale, another in the Polish Radio Jazz Archives series published by the Polish Radio Music Agency.

It is impossible to argue with the view that Namysłowski was one of the co-creators of the so-called "Polish school of jazz". Many consider the debut of the Zbigniew Namysłowski Quartet (Namysłowski, Włodek Gulgowski, Tadeusz Wójcik and Czesław Bartkowski) during the 1963 Jazz Jamboree festival to be the founding act of this "school".

Subsequent incarnations of bands led by Namysłowski were mainly quartets or quintets. They featured, and often debuted, musicians today regarded as the best Polish jazzmen.

Most of the jazz archive of Polish Radio was created as a result of agreements between the radio station and musicians, based on which the latter received modest but regular fees for participating in recordings organized in the studios of Polish Radio. On two discs we present the effect of such radio recordings of Zbigniew Namysłowski's line-ups from four sessions in 1974, 1975, 1992 and 1995.

The first two of them are like a prologue and an epilogue to the masterpiece, which was the album "Kujaviak Goes Funky" released by Polskie Nagrania in 1975. At that time, Namysłowski led the quintet in various personnel configurations.

In the late 1970s, Namysłowski spent two years in New York, then returned to Poland with the idea for the jazz-rock quintet Air Condition, which for four years triumphed on national stages and recording studios. After Air Condition, it's time for a quartet again.

And after more than fifteen years, first the quartet (1992) and then the quintet (1995) by Namysłowski were again installed in the studios of the Polish Radio. These sessions were included on the second disc.

Among the musicians who accompany Zbigniew Namysłowski during radio sessions, both in the 1970s and 1990s, there are names that speak for themselves: Wojciech Karolak, Paweł Jarzębski, Czesław Bartkowski, Janusz Muniak, Tomasz Szukalski, Zbigniew Wgehaupt , Leszek Możdżer, Cezary Konrad and Piotr Wojtasik.

In the "Polish Radio Jazz Archives" series, published by the Polish Radio Music Agency, you can find the most interesting recordings of jazz sessions and concerts from the Polish Radio Archives. So far, CDs with recordings by, among others, Krzysztof Komeda, Mieczysław Kosz, Zbigniew Seifert, Wojciech Karolak have been released , Janusz Skowron, Stan Getz, Don Ellis, Dizzy Gillespie and many others.For jazz lovers, we recommend taking a closer look at this series.