Wojciech Karolak

Wojciech Karolak at Club Tygmont (Warsaw, 2006)

Wojciech Krzysztof Karolak (born May 28, 1939 in Warsaw ) is a Polish musician (first alto saxophone , then piano and organ ) of modern jazz .

Live and act

Karolak had then as a child piano lessons and was on Chopin Conservatory trained before he attended the Academy of Music in Krakow studied. Since 1958 he has appeared as a saxophonist, first with the Jazz Believers (with, among others, Krzysztof Komeda ) before becoming a member of the Matuszkiewicz quintet (where he occasionally switched to the piano). In addition, he played since 1958 in the groups of Jan Wróblewski , with whom he also appeared with Andrzej Trzaskowski , Don Ellis , Ray Charles and Annie Ross and recorded an album ("Polish Jazz Quartet", 1964). From 1961 he concentrated on keyboard instruments and from the following year led his own trio, with which he also accompanied traveling jazz soloists. Between 1966 and 1972 he lived in Sweden, where he mainly played dance music, but also worked with Putte Wickman and Leroy Lowe before appearing at several European festivals in 1972 with Michal Urbaniak and Red Mitchell . In 1973 he returned to Poland to work at Zbigniew Namysłowski . The next year he toured North America with Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak and performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in order to then record the large-format album "Easy". He then led the group “Mainstream” together with Wróblewski, in order to form Time Killers with Tomasz Szukalski and Czesław Bartkowski in the 1980s and to present highly acclaimed recordings. In the 1990s he worked with guitarist Jarosław Śmietana , with whom he released three albums. He then worked with Piotr Baron and Zbigniew Lewandowski in the High Bred Jazz Trio , but also often performed with Leszek Cichoński's Guitar Workshop .

Karolak also writes for the film and works as a soloist, arranger and composer for the Polish Radio Orchestra. In his arrangements he combines influences from Gil Evans and Neal Hefti .

Discographic notes

• The Karolak Trio (1962)
• Easy (1974)
• Wojciech Karolak, Włodzimierz Gulgowski , Janusz Skowron , Zbigniew Namysłowski, Harris Simon Kalisz. X-Lecie Międzynarodowych Festiwali Pianistów Jazzowych (PolJazz 1983)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wojciech Karolak | Biography | Archiwum Polskiego Rocka 1961 - 2019. Retrieved March 23, 2019 (pl-PL). 

Lexigraphic entries

• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .