Komeda / Seifert Night
As a final accent of the Krzysztof Komeda Year and Zbigniew Seifert’s 75th birthday celebrations, three Polish bands will pay a musical tribute to these two eminent jazzmen. EABS, Atom String Quartet, and Piotr ‘Pianohooligan’ Orzechowski with Kuba Więcek will perform music by Komeda and Seifert at Budapest’s Opus Jazz Club.
2021 sees the 90th birth anniversary of Krzysztof Komeda (born Krzysztof Trzciński), Polish composer and jazz pianist, author of popular jazz standards and film music. One of the pioneers of modern jazz in Poland, he earned worldwide fame with his soundtracks for 65 movies by, among others, such highly regarded film directors as Roman Polański, Andrzej Kondratiuk, Jerzy Skolimowski, Henning Carlsen, and Buzz Kulik.
Jazz violinist and composer Zbigniew Seifert was, on the other hand, a great innovator, inventor of an original violin style still considered today as a model nonpareil for many generations to follow. He began his adventure with jazz in Tomasz Stańko’s Quintet. In the 1970s he moved to Germany and then settled in the United States, where he signed an exclusive contract with the US Capitol label. In that period, he was the only musician from Poland to achieve such an enormous success in the jazz scene. In 1979, while still not yet 33 years old, he succumbed to cancer, and his death thwarted these glowing prospects nearly at the start of his career.
The special concert marking these two outstanding musicians’ jubilee year will feature works by Komeda and Seifert in new, surprising arrangements and unusual interpretations. Three Polish bands will appear on the stage of Budapest’s famous Opus Jazz Club: EABS, Atom String Quartet, as well as the duo of Piotr ‘Pianohooligan’ Orzechowski and Kuba Więcek.
The Wrocław-based EABS took the Polish jazz scene by storm with its phenomenal 2017 CD Repetitions. Letters to Krzysztof Komeda, dedicated to the music of Krzysztof Komeda. Atom String Quartet, on the other hand, is one of Poland’s most highly regarded string quartets playing jazz and improvised music. Their 2017 CD Seifert, a Zbigniew Seifert Foundation release containing compositions by this eminent Polish violinist, was nominated for the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry as Best Album of the Year. The pianist Piotr ‘Pianohooligan’ Orzechowski and sax player Kuba Więcek will play their own original programme titled ‘Komeda Exposed!’ What happens when we combine the creative powers of Orzechowski and Więcek with the legacy of Krzysztof Komeda? Without doubt, an explosive mixture of talent, inspiration and unrestricted improvisation.
This special concert, Komeda / Seifert Night, will be held on 25th November 2021 at the Opus Jazz Club in Budapest.
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