Zbigniew Seifert

Zbigniew Seifert (called: Zbiggy ) (born June 6, 1946 in Krakow , † February 15, 1979 in Buffalo ) was a Polish jazz musician . He is considered "one of the most impressive and creative European jazz musicians of his time."

Live and act

Seifert graduated from the Cracow State Music Academy in violin ; he also played the alto saxophone . During his studies he founded his own jazz quartet as a saxophonist; He also sought collaboration with Tomasz Stańko , whose quartet (later quintet) he belonged to from 1969 to 1973. The band is considered to be one of the best in the history of Polish jazz. He now opened his playing more to the forms of free improvisation and switched to the violin. In 1973 Seifert moved to West Germany and cooperated with Hans Koller ( Kunstkopfindianer , 1974), with whose Free Sound he toured several times. He also worked with Volker Kriegel ( Lift , 1973), Friedrich Gulda and Jasper van't Hof ( Eyeball , 1974). He also appeared with Joachim Kühn at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1975 and played with Charlie Mariano ( Helen 12 Trees , 1976). In 1976 he recorded two of his own records, one of which was a solo album. A year later, he released his first American LP . A first record was not recorded in Poland until 1978. At about the same time he released another album with Passion . Most recently he worked with the band Oregon , with which their highly acclaimed album Violin (1978) was created. Seifert also wrote a jazz concert for violin, rhythm section and symphony orchestra . Cancer resulted in his early death in early 1979.

Seifert's expressive style and phrasing on the violin further developed John Coltrane's musical ideas . There was “a chamber music Zbigniew and a Trane-like one, ” said Joachim Ernst Berendt , quoting him himself: “What I play on the violin, I hear in the performances of the saxophone. I admire Coltrane and I try to play the way he would play if he had played the violin. ”He influenced other violinists such as Jean-Luc Ponty , Krzesimir Dębski and Didier Lockwood , who said:“ No other violinist has moved me and influenced as Zbigniew Seifert. ”At the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1976 McCoy Tyner is said to have said that he had never heard such a violinist before.

Discographic notes

• Hans Koller Free Sound feat. Wolfgang Dauner : Kunstkopfindianer ( MPS , 1974), with Adelhard Roidinger , Janusz Stefański
• Solo violin ( EMI , 1976)
• Man of the Light (MPS, 1976, with Joachim Kühn and Jasper van't Hof , Cecil McBee , Billy Hart )
• Zbigniew Seifert ( Capitol , 1977, with Rob Franken , Hubert Eaves , Stefan Diez , John Lee , Gerry Brown , Mtume , Chris Hinze and others)
• Kilimanjaro (PSJ, 1978, with Jarosław Śmietana , Zbigniew Wegehaupt , Mieczysław Górka)
• Passion (Capitol, 1978, with John Scofield , Richie Beirach , Eddie Gomez , Jack DeJohnette , Naná Vasconcelos )
• We'll Remember Zbiggy ( Mood , 1979, with Koller, Dauner, Kühn, Beirach, Urszula Dudziak , Albert Mangelsdorff , Jan Hammer and others)

Web links

• Literature by and about Zbigniew Seifert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Discography, photos, current violinist competition
• Partial discography
• Interview with Seifert (English) ( Memento of 21 May 2019 Internet Archive )
• Zbigniew Seifert at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} W. Kampmann: Reclams Jazzlexikon . Stuttgart 2003.
2. ↑ Jan Poprawa in the booklet of Kilimanjaro .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Joachim E. Berendt: The great jazz book. From New Orleans to JazzRock . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-596-22980-4 , pp. 359f.
4. ^ Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Günther Huesmann: Das Jazzbuch. From New Orleans to the 21st century . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-15964-4 , pp. 668 .