Włodzimierz Szymański

Włodzimierz Szymański (* 1936 in Bydgoszcz ; † September 20, 2015 ) was a Polish jazz musician , composer, multi-instrumentalist ( saxophone , clarinet , keyboard instruments) and vocalist.

Live and act

Szymański was born in Bydgoszcz in 1936. He studied music in Zespół Szkół Muzycznych im. Karola Szymanowskiego ( Karol Szymanowski School of Music ) in Toruń and at the Gdansk Music Academy (then Sopot Music Academy ). At the age of 17 he took part in recordings by Grzegorz Kardaś and Tadeusz Kurczewski and performed as an accompanying musician with the vocal band of Edmund Lubiatowski. He also toured the region with the hit band Służba Polsce .

From 1956 to 1958 he was a member of the Orkiestra Reprezentacyjna Wojska Polskiego (Orchestra of the Polish Army) in Warsaw and the jazz band that emerged from him, which won first place in the 1958 Przegląd Zespołów Rozrywkowo-Jazzowych (Festival of Popular and Jazz Music ) . After returning to Bydgoszcz, he founded the Zodiak Jazz Band in the club "Zodiak" that had just been created . In the late 1950s he performed at the Sopot Grand Hotel . During this time he worked with Zbigniew Cybulski , Bogumił Kobiela and Zdzisław Maklakiewicz , among others .

In the early 1960s, Szymański joined the Orkiestra Radia i Telewizji (Radio Orchestra) led by Julian Skowroński, in which well-known vocalists such as Violetta Villas , Rena Polska , Hanna Rek , Danuta Rinn and Jan Danek sang. During this time he began to perform abroad, including in Yugoslavia , Hungary , Romania and Scandinavia . With his wife Aleksandra he performed as a saxophone-vocal duet. At one concert he performed with Louis Armstrong , at another he accompanied Ursula Andress .

Szymański was also quite active in Poland and participated in various projects and tours. He accompanied well-known cabaret artists during their performances. In the 1980s he toured Western Europe again, this time with Maciej Dyakowski's band. He performed at the Old Jazz Festival in Breda , the Netherlands . Later he lived for a long time in Germany , where he directed the Mercedes orchestra in Stuttgart .

In the late 1990s, Szymański returned to Bydgoszcz. He died on September 20, 2015.

swell

• Magda Jasińska: Zmarł Włodzimierz Szymański. Polskie Radio PiK, September 20, 2015, accessed on September 26, 2015 (Polish). 
• Zdzisław Pruss, Alicja Weber, Rajmund Kuczma: Bydgoski leksykon muzyczny . Kujawsko-Pomorskie Towarzystwo Kulturalne, Bydgoszcz 2004, p. 577-578 .