Krzysztof Komeda

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Komeda in front of piano keys, plaque from Michał Selerowski in Poznan at the branch of the National Bank of Poland

Krzysztof Komeda (born: Krzysztof Trzciński ; born April 27, 1931 in Posen , Poland , † April 23, 1969 in Warsaw ) was a Polish ear, nose and throat doctor . Komeda became a jazz pianist and composer of jazz and film music of international importance. According to Jan Wróblewski , Komeda has a musical status similar to that of Chopin in Poland .

Life

Branch building of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) in Poznań, Komeda's apartment 1952–56 during his studies

In his youth he received piano lessons in Ostrów Wielkopolski (German: Ostrowo ), where he lived from 1946 to 1951. He later became a student at the Poznan Conservatory (piano lessons and music theory). Then he decided to study medicine. His father Mieczysław Trzciński was a banker and in December 1952 took over the position of a branch director of the National Bank of Poland in Poznań. During his studies he lived here with his parents from 1952 to 1956 and had his own piano. As a student he made contact with the Krakow underground jazz scene. People met in private apartments or night clubs, the "catacombs of jazz". His interest in light music and dance music shifted from Dixieland to bebop and finally to contemporary jazz.

Komeda-Trzciński celebrated its first national success in August 1956 at the first Jazz Festival in Sopot with the Komeda Sextet . The news of a jazz festival had previously spread like wildfire across Poland. The completely improvised event attracted around 30 to 50,000 young Poles who stayed on lawns, in parks, or in bathing baskets on the beach. At the beginning of the festival there was a parade in the style of the parades of the New Orleans orchestras on Mardi Gras . The Komeda sextet symbolically buried the usual Dixieland jazz and dance music in two boxes . Since all the newspapers reported about the first free jazz festival, jazz music could no longer be banned from the public as easily as before.

Since then, the ear, nose and throat doctor has been using the stage name Komeda to hide his passion for a semi-legal style of music from his medical colleagues, which was still met with suspicion in Poland at that time. In terms of content, the repertoire of the Komeda sextet was considered a synthesis of the then well-known jazz groups such as The Gerry Mulligan Quartet and Modern Jazz Quartet . At the 2nd Jazz Festival in Sopot, Komeda and his wife Zofia led a procession in the sports stadium. The West German jazz journalist Joachim-Ernst Berendt and his Polish-speaking colleague Werner Wunderlich were eye-witnesses of this “cautious liberalization”. “The word 'jazz' has become a symbol of freedom in Poland. In no other country has jazz had such great political importance. Jazz gained signal function in Poland. And Komeda was a key figure in this. "

In the years 1956 to 1962, further festivals followed at home and abroad ( Moscow , Grenoble , Paris ). Komeda also began composing film music. In total he wrote the music for 70 films. The best known of these are Nóż w wodzie (German: The knife in the water ), Dance of the Vampires and Rosemary's Baby , all three by the director Roman Polański . In 1969 he received a Golden Globe nomination for best music for the music for Rosemary's Baby .

At the 1962 Jazz Jamboree , Komeda presented his ballet études . They were coldly received in the musician's home country, but they paved the way for a European career. Komeda made guest appearances in the concert halls in Stockholm and Copenhagen , at jazz festivals in Prague and Bled , and went on tour to Bulgaria as well as East and West Germany .

His quintet recording Astigmatic from 1965 with Tomasz Stańko and Zbigniew Namysłowski with songs like Svantetic is regarded by connoisseurs of the European jazz scene as a successful expression of an independent European jazz aesthetic. In Poland this album is still regarded as the central jazz album to this day. Until today (2019) Astigmatic has been voted the first place of the most important jazz recording in Poland every year. His record Dicht und Jazz (1967), a recording of Polish poems in German translation, was politically risky and unusual during the Cold War .

Marek Hłasko (left) and Krzysztof Komeda, September 1968

In 1967 Polański brought him to Hollywood to work on other film projects with him, including the score for Rosemary's Baby . According to Berendt, he suffered a chronic cerebral haemorrhage in an unfortunate fall in January 1969 . The writer Marek Hłasko was a mutual friend of the two friends and known for his temperament and physical strength. When Hłasko once again celebrated the slender Komeda at a feast and carried him in his arms, he is said to have slipped and Komeda's head hit the edge of the table. According to other sources, the cause of the accident was a car accident in Los Angeles . A hematoma in the brain was not correctly diagnosed and treated in the hospital. Komeda fell into a coma . After several months, Komeda was flown to Poland, where Polish specialists were supposed to operate on him. Komeda died shortly afterwards, and after hearing the news, Hłasko committed suicide. He was buried in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

Komeda was married to the music manager Zofia Komedowa, born in 1959. von Tittenbrun (November 13, 1929 - August 20, 2009). In 2009, the then President Lech Kaczyński posthumously awarded her the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta "for her outstanding services to the independence of the Republic of Poland, for activities aimed at democratic change and for the promotion of Polish jazz music."

gallery

  • Watercolor by Krzysztof Komeda
    (Zbigniew Kresowaty)

  • Memorial plaque on the wall of the bank branch in Ostrów Wielkopolski , where he lived from 1946 to 1951

  • Komeda Jazz Festival in Slupsk , 2014

  • Komeda sculpture in Poznań, contemplating scenes from his life

  • Grave of Krzysztof Komeda and Zofia Komedowa in Powązki Cemetery , Warsaw, with 3 piano keys on the grave plate

Discography (selection)

  • 1961 - Jazz Jamboree. Komeda Trio
  • 1964 - Jazz Greetings from the East.
  • 1966 - Astigmatic . K. Komeda Quintet
  • 1967 - My sweet European homeland. Poetry and jazz with Helmuth Lohner as speaker
  • 1998 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 1: Ballet Etudes / Breakfast at Tiffany's
  • 1998 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 2: Memory of Bach
  • 1998 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 6: Crazy Girl
  • 1998 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 9: What's up Mr. Basie
  • 1998 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 10: Astigmatic in Concert
  • 2000 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 11: Knife in the Water / Two Man and a Wardrobe / When Angels Fall
  • 2004 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 13: Ballads
  • 2005 - Zofia Komeda presents Vol. 14: Kattorna, Sult, People Meet And Sweet Music Fills The Heart
  • 2011 - Krzysztof Komeda Live at The Jazz Jamboree Festival 1961 - 1967

Filmography (selection)

Appreciations

  • Director Roman Polański , who had known Komeda since attending the Łódź Film School in 1957, paid tribute to his friend with the words: “Komeda's music was cool and modern, but a human heart beat in it. He was the film musician par excellence. He gave value to my films. You would be worthless without his music. "
  • In 1973 Joachim-Ernst Berendt produced and published an album in memory of Komeda: We'll Remember Komeda . Contributors were u. a. Michał Urbaniak , Tomasz Stańko , Attila Zoller , Urszula Dudziak and Zbigniew Seifert .
  • Since 1995 the "Komeda Jazz Festival" in Słupsk near Gdansk has been held every November in his honor . The festival serves to promote young jazz musicians and also organizes a composition competition.
  • Several buildings in Poznan are named Komedas, including a cinema, a hotel and a covered promenade with a wall series of poster art, the Aleja Krzysztofa Komedy .

Literature (selection)

documentary

Radio feature

Web links

Commons : Krzysztof Komeda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Databases

To Komeda

photos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Bert Noglik : A lyric poet of sound. Krzysztof Komeda - memories of a Polish jazz legend. In: Jazzzeitung , 2006, No. 4, p. 13
  2. ↑ Cultural events connected with Komeda • 2008. In: komeda.pl , accessed on December 19, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c Piotr Bojarski: Krzysztof Komeda - z katakumb jazzu do Sopotu. [= Krzysztof Komeda - From the catacombs of jazz to Sopot .] In: Gazeta Wyborcza , September 9, 2016.
  4. ^ Piotr Bojarski: Krzysztof Komeda i trumna w Sopocie. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , September 12, 2016, Krzysztof Komeda and the coffin in Sopot.
  5. ↑ a b Werner Wunderlich : Venerated almost like a saint. ( Memento from March 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Südwestfunk , April 16, 1990, (3:19 min., MP3 ), click on the triangle at the bottom of the picture.
  6. ↑ Hans Kumpf : Możdżers Komeda. Solo pianist honor for the film music legend. ( Memento of October 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Jazz Podium , 2011, No. 9, p. 7; Reprinted in Jazzpages.
  7. ↑ a b Daniel Wyszogrodzki: Krzysztof Komeda: A flight so senselessly interrupted. In: thefirstnews.com  / PAP , April 24, 2019.
  8. ↑ Joachim-Ernst Berendt : We'll Remember Komeda. In: A Window from Jazz. Essays, portraits, reflections. S. Fischer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1977, 428 pp., Ill., ISBN 3-10-003801-0 , pp. 117-123.
  9. ↑ Donata Subbotko: Zmarła Zofia Komedowa. ( Memento of August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). = Zofia Komedowa has died. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , August 21, 2009.
  10. ↑ Prezydent odznaczył "Crazy Girl". [= The President awarded "Crazy Girl". (Komeda's composition for Zofia Komedowa)] In: Prezydent.pl , September 11, 2009, accessed December 19, 2019.
  11. ↑ Polański is quoted in Berendt: We'll Remember Komeda , online source.
  12. ↑ LP data: Michał Urbaniak Tomasz Stanko Attila Zoller Urszula Dudziak - We'll Remember Komeda. In: discogs.com , accessed December 19, 2019.
  13. ^ Komeda Jazz Festival & Komeda Composers' Competition. (Polish, English).
  14. ↑ Photo: Kino Komeda. In: commons.wikimedia.org .
  15. ↑ Photo: Hotel Komeda. In: commons.wikimedia.org .
  16. ↑ Photo: Aleja Krzysztofa Komedy. In: commons.wikimedia.org .
  17. ↑ Film music: Andreas & Matthias Hornschuh , production: Benedikt Pictures, Studio Filmowe Kalejdoskop, arte , ZDF , TVP2 , SF , DR , YLE Teema, funded by media and SFP Poland, DEFA Foundation ; Awards: Fipa d'Argent Biarritz 2010, nominated for the Prix ​​Europa 2010, report in Filmportal.de .
personal data
SURNAME Komeda, Krzysztof
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trzcinski, Krzysztof (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish doctor, pianist, composer of jazz and film music
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Poznan , Poland
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1969
Place of death Warsaw , Poland