Meet the rising stars transforming Poland’s jazz scene

London’s Polish Cultural Institute has launched a series of video interviews with rising stars from the Polish jazz scene.

Chaired by Jane Cornwell, a jazz critic for London’s Evening Standard and longterm collaborator of Jazzwise, New Polish Jazz: Ones To Watch features innovative, internationally-acclaimed musicians including Joanna Duda, Jerzy Mączyński, Piotr Orzechowski, Marek Pędziwiatr and Wacław Zimpel. While in communist Poland, jazz symbolised the quest for freedom and democracy, today’s Polish jazz scene is marked by local avantgarde, classical, and folk music traditions, as well as contemporary music styles such as hip hop and electronic music.

Programme highlights include a talk with composer, pianist and interdisciplinary artist Joanna Duda on deconstructing Chopin in her mix of jazz and electronic music, and the creative power of mistakes in jazz. Meanwhile, Marek Pędziwiatr, the leader of the sextet EABS and a member of the band Błoto, discusses how he blends hip-hop grooves into jazz music.

Watch the video series here.