Jazztopad Festival
with
The Polish Cultural Institute New York &
The Adam Mickiewicz Institute 

Tuesday, June 19, 2018 – Friday, June 29, 2018 

Dizzy’s Club Coca-Colal
TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival
TD Victoria Jazzfest
TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival
TD Ottawa Jazz Festival
Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival 

“Jazztopad Festival, a leading event of its kind in Poland. . .” – NATE CHINEN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“. . . top flight musicians will celebrate improvisation on stage in the homeland of Jazz, the United States. . .” – BONNIE JOHNSON, WICN “Colors of Jazz”

“The Jazztopad Festival brings together the jazz movement that is happening in Europe to the USA. . .” – TIM LONGO, SNEEK CITY

“. . . Jazztopad stands as an internationally renowned festival with a clearly defined ethos, one that combines a strong respect for the traditions and roots of the music with a progressive vision that provides a platform for the contemporary and innovative.” – IAN PATTERSON, ALL ABOUT JAZZ.COM 

For the fourth time, a special edition of Wroclaw’s Jazztopad Festival will bring leading Polish jazz artists to the United States and Canada, in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York and with support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. This June, multi-award-winning ensemble Maciej Obara Quartet will perform in New York, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver, and Rochester. In the United States the quartet will play at the prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center on June 19th, and at the popular Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on June 29th. 

Jazztopad Festival will return to New York and Washington DC October 1 – 6, 2018. Artists will be announced soon.  

Polish alto saxophonist Maciej Obara makes a very striking ECM debut with Unloved, an album whose expressive range embraces tender lyricism and impassioned, fiery, powerful playing. With the exception of the title track, a yearning ballad written by Krzysztof Komeda (the guiding spirit of modern jazz in Poland) for Janusz Nasfeter’s film of the same name, the featured pieces originate from Obara’s pen, in a program that he describes as “a very personal statement, about people very dear to me, and places that inspire me.” He also emphasizes, however, that his themes merely “serve as outlines, from which our sound is set free. . . .It’s more like composing in real time,” with highly engaged input from all gifted members of his group – Dominik Wania, Ole MortenVågan and Gard Nilssen. Each of the four players is a bandleader in his own right; for five years they’ve have been pooling their talents in the half-Polish/half-Norwegian Obara Quartet and taking their music around the world. 

Jazztopad Festival, the leading event of its kind in Poland, has organized its satellite editions all over the world (Japan, Turkey, South Korea) in collaboration with such partners as Jarasum International Jazz Festival, Tokyo Jazz Festival, Akbank Jazz Festival, TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival and, for the last four years, with Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. For fourteen years, the festival has been commissioning music from some of the most important American artists including Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Jason Moran, William Parker, Vijay Iyer and Terence Blanchard. The international creative partnerships of Jazztopad include such prestigious organizations as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Monterey Jazz Festival, Kennedy Center, London Jazz Festival and LA Philharmonic. Live recordings from the festival have been released on ECM and Blue Note Records. 

The American edition of Jazztopad Festival is above all an opportunity to discover the most important artists from the Polish contemporary jazz scene which has been a strongly recognizable brand in the world, both in terms of quality of festivals and the craft of artists. 

Schedule
More about the artists