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Jazz Articles about Zbigniew Seifert
Tomasz Stańko: Polish Radio Sessions 1970-91
by Kevin Poindexter
In post-World War II Poland, jazz served as an act of defiance against the state, a resistance to the cultural restraints imposed on society. With its improvised nature and swinging rhythms, it stood in direct opposition to the rigid structure of socialist society. Where jazz relies on individual improvisation as a form of expression, socialist society demanded the opposite from individuals; they were expected to be just another part of the machine. Universal conformity was the goal, and since jazz ...
Continue Reading3rd Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition
by Ian Patterson
3rd Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music Luslawice/Kraków Poland July 25-28, 2018 “An international jazz violin competition? Really?" That is usually came as a surprise to the applicants, and eventual participants themselves, that an international jazz violin competition should exist says a lot about the rarity of such an event. Yet as the bi-annual Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition has demonstrated, there is certainly no shortage of truly ...
Continue ReadingZbigniew Seifert: Solo Violin
by Ian Patterson
In April 1974, a year after the break-up of Tomasz Stanko's first great quintet, Zbigniew Seifert gave his first solo violin concert. Another solo gig, two years later, produced the LP Solo Violin (EMI, 1978), which, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation to promote Seifert's legacy, once more finds its way onto CD after years out of print. Following the simultaneous release of Variospheres (Zbigniew Seifert Foundation, 2017)--an exhilarating live recording of Seifert's short-lived, one-tour quartet--the ...
Continue ReadingVariospheres: Live in Solothurn
by Ian Patterson
When Tomasz Stańko's first classic quintet came to the natural end of its road in 1973, with all its members looking for new directions in music, violinist Zbigniew Seifert embarked on a solo career that saw him record a number of albums with very different line-ups. In fact, bar a brief period at the end of the 1960s, Seifert never led a steady group for any length of time. This lack of a strong and consistent vehicle may explain why ...
Continue ReadingMan Of The Light: The Life And Work Of Zbigniew Seifert
by Ian Patterson
Man Of The Light: The Life And Work Of Zbigniew Seifert Aneta Norek-Skrycka 172 Pages ISBN: 978-83-938054-2-6 The Zbigniew Seifert Foundation 2016 A number of European jazz musicians stand out for having shaped the sound of the music in the past fifty years, for their virtuosity and for having influenced subsequent generations. A partial list would include Django Reinhardt, Joe Zawinul, Jan Garbarek, Jan Johansson, Norma Winstone, Henri Texier, Enrico Rava and Tomasz ...
Continue ReadingZbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition
by Ian Patterson
1st Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music Luslawice/Krakow Poland July 16-19, 2014 He was one of the great jazz virtuosos, right up there some would say with Django Reinhardt, Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. Most frequently, however, he was compared to John Coltrane. The cruelly premature death of Polish jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert at the age of 32 undoubtedly robbed jazz of one of its most ...
Continue ReadingZbigniew Seifert Quartet: Nora
by John Kelman
With a trajectory only starting to expand beyond his native Poland, before succumbing to complications from cancer in 1979 at age 32, it's little surprise that Zbigniew Seifert has flown largely beneath the radar of even the most knowledgeable jazzer. Still, it appears as though overdue attention is finally returning to this remarkable violinist, whose Man of the Light (Promising Music, 1977) remains an overlooked gem of incendiary post-Coltrane modality, and impressionistic, European classicism. A documentary film is underway, and ...
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