11 November 2017 (Saturday) 7pm

Adam Makowicz (USA)

piano recital

Church of Creative Communities, ul. M. Skłodowskiej–Curie 22

fot. Aleksander Bakinowski

Adam Makowicz

a jazz legend, maestro if improvisation, a renowned pianist

Born in 1940 in the Czech Republic in a Polish family living back then in the Silesian Cieszyn. In 1946 he came back to Poland with his parents. They chose Rybnik, where Adam’s father found work in a mine as an engineer. It was in Rybnik when Adam took his first piano lessons from his mother, also a pianist and a singer. Young Adam proved particularly talented and thus was directed to a school for children with musical talent and from there to the Rybnik piano class, under the supervision of an outstanding teacher, prof. Karol Szafranek. Although his parents dreamt a classic piano career for their son, 15-year-old Adam was drawn towards jazz. Later on, in the 50s, jazz music was frowned upon in Poland as a forbidden fruit from the West. This music, as Makowicz once said, “the world of freedom and improvisation”, fascinated him so much that as a teenager he dropped out from school and left the classic music requirements and rules altogether.

Searching for his own artistic path and the language of music expression, and not being able to back on his parents, Adam chose an austere kind of existence in constant uncertainty of the next day. “Helicon”, a Krakow jazz club, became his haven. Some years later, in 1962, together with a sax player Janusz Muniak, soon to be replaced by Tomasz Stańko, Adam established a jazz band called “Jazz Darlings”, which is thought to be the first European jazz combo. At that time, he still co-operated with Andrzej Kurylewicz, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Urszula Dudziak and Wojciech Młynarski. For many years he would put in an appearance at Warsaw Jazz Jamboree Festivals, which were already famous back then. Since mid 70s, Adam Makowicz has been giving more and more concerts as a soloist, gaining fame and recognition among the music fans in Poland and abroad.

In 1977, thanks to the recommendation of Benny Goodman and Willis Conover (on whose radio programme “Music USA-Jazz Hour” young Makowicz was learning jazz), the legendary producer John Hammond invited him for a 10-week tour across the USA. During this time Makowicz released a solo album for CBS Columbia, entitled “Adam”. In 1978 Makowicz left for the USA the second time, but this time for a six-month contract and since then, New York, Manhattan became his home. Some legendary temples of music opened up to Adam — the New York Carnegie Hall (where he gave the first solo concert commemorating Erroll Garner who had passed away six months before) and the Cookery club in Greenwich Village. He was also invited to participate in the Jazz Festival in Newport on Rhode Island. After the martial war was introduced in Poland in 1981, together with other artists living in the USA, Adam took part in the TV programme that was broadcast worldwide and organized thanks to the president Ronald Reagan “For Poland to be Poland” — that definitely cut him off any possibility to visit the country for some years. It was only after 1989 that he could finally visit Poland, the country he’s been visiting frequently since then. While in the USA, he performed together with the most famous and the greatest musicians there are, e.g. Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Earl Hinese, Freddie Hubbard, Sarah Vaughan, Teddy Wilson, George Shearing, George Mraze, Al Fostere, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden. On multiple occasions he was a guest as a soloist at orchestras and chamber groups, e.g. National Symphony of Washington, London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Chester String Quartet, Amici String Quartet, or almost all significant Polish bands, including Polish National Philharmonics in Warsaw, NOSPR in Katowice, Sinfonia Varsovia, Chamber Orchestra Amadeus, Polish Chamber Philharmonics, Wilanów Quartet and many others.

His performance with Leszek Możdżer at Carnegie Hall in 2004 was very favourably reviewed. The concert was “the duel” between the maestro and the up-and-coming jazz star and was released on CD and DVD. The recording was awarded with a platinum CD by EMI Music. Apart from jazz he also has classical music in his repertoire, particularly Chopin, whom he adored in his days of yore and whom he “feels in a jazz ways” as no other. The touch of Chopin can be seen in his concerts with Krzysztof Jabłońskior Stanisław Drzewieckie in their programme “Chopin classically and in a jazz way”. In the USA Adam released an album devoted to this brilliant composer. In his wide repertoire, Adam also has pieces by Gershwin, I. Berlin, J. Kern, C. Porter and many other American composers. He recorded several dozens of records and performed at most important concert halls worldwide, co-operating with the greatest modern musicians. He is also the author of music for chamber bands, over 100 short jazz compositions and some music for short films.

He was honoured with many distinctions, e.g. the Commander Cross of Merit. In 2008, because of the 400th anniversary of the American Polonia, Adam Makowicz was honoured by including him on the list of the most merited of Poles in the history of the USA. In October 2009, he was decorated with a Golden Cross of Gloria Artis in Warsaw — the highest Polish distinction for merits in popularizing Polish art worldwide. In 2012, the Society of the Friends of Silesia in Warsaw honoured Adam with their annual award for people particularly merited for Silesia. For the past several years Adam has been the Honourable Citizen of Ustronie, where he annually gives a concert, and all income from that recital is then donated to the charitable cause, supporting a Centre for Education and Rehabilitation in Ustronie-Nierodzimie. In autumn 2011, PWN Edition publishing house issued a book that proved to be very popular among the readers, written by Marek Strasz “Playing the first piano. Interview with Adam Makowicz”, where Adam tells an extremely vivid and honest story about his difficult beginnings, love for jazz and overseas career. In 2015 there was the second edition of the book. In the same year, his home town Rybnik honoured him with a great title of Honourable Citizen of the Rybnik City”.