Mieczysław Kosz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mieczysław Kosz (born January 10, 1944 in Antoniówka near Tomaszów Lubelski , † May 31, 1973 in Warsaw ) was a Polish jazz pianist .

Live and act

Memorial plaque at the Mieczysław Kosz jazz club

Kosz grew up in simple circumstances. As a child he mainly played the harmonica ; at the age of 8 he was admitted to a music school where he was taught piano. Kosz had been blind since he was 12.

Kosz was stylistically influenced by Claude Debussy , Robert Schumann , Frédéric Chopin , Franz Liszt , Johann Sebastian Bach as well as by Bill Evans , Miles Davis and Lennie Tristano ; In 1969 the first recordings were made at the Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw ( Jazz Jamboree '69 ). In 1972 he presented the album Reminiscence , with jazz arrangements of tracks by Lennon-McCartney (" Yesterday "), Alexander Borodin ("Tańce Połowieckie"), Frédéric Chopin ("Preludium C minor") and his own compositions. It was the only album by Kosz as a leader that was released during his lifetime. He gained fame mainly thanks to his concert appearances, as he was only involved in a few recordings. In the field of jazz he was involved in eight recording sessions from 1969 to 1972, including the debut album by Marianna Wróblewska . He also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival .

On May 31, 1973, Kosz jumped out of the window of his apartment. The two-part compilation Mieczysław Kosz was published posthumously with recordings by the pianist with Jacek Ostaszewski (bass) and Sergiusz Perkowski (drums) that were unpublished during his lifetime .

He is considered one of the most important Polish jazz musicians of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Because of his roots in “Slavic” lyricism and at the same time being open to free jazz , he is sometimes compared to Krzysztof Komeda .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Mieczysław Kosz - Życie jest dramatyczną przygodą. Hi-Fi, March 2010, accessed June 27, 2017 (Polish).
  2. ↑ The sampler also contains recordings by the Andrzej Przybielski Quartet, the Zbigniew Seifert Quartet, Adam Makowicz , the Paradoks formation (with Andrzej Brzeski (tb, ldr), Tomasz Sosnowski (bassoon), Michal Gorny (cello), Zbigniew Kulhawczyk (b) ) and Michał Urbaniak Group with Adam Makowicz (p), Janusz Kozlowski (el-b), Andrzej Dabrowski (dr) and Urszula Dudziak (vcl).
  3. ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz Discography (online)
  4. ↑ Portrait on the homepage of the Jazz Club Kosz, accessed on June 27, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Kosz, Mieczysław
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Antoniówka , Tomaszów Lubelski
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1973
Place of death Warsaw