JAZZ FORUM Special English Edition!

We współpracy z Instytutem Adama Mickiewicza wydaliśmy specjalną edycję JAZZ FORUM na targi Jazzahead! 2018 w Bremie. 

Bohaterami okładki są Anna Maria Jopek i Leszek Możdżer - gwiazdy polskiej gali na bremeńskich targach. Autorką fotografii jest Kasia Stańczyk, która zaprojektowała szatę graficzną tego specjalnego numeru.

So this year Poland is Jazzahead’s partner country! We are the first Eastern European scene to get exposure at this prestigious gathering of jazz professionals from around the world. In his opening speech at the inaugural concert, Jazzahead’s artistic director Uli Beckerhoff praised the Polish jazz tradition and its vibrant scene today, and emphasized that two Polish institutions have made a particularly strong impact: the Jazz Jamboree festival, which over its 60-year-old history hosted the world’s greatest jazz stars, and JAZZ FORUM magazine, which has served the jazz community for more than a half century, its international edition being of special importance.

The golden days of our periodical were the late ’70s, when JAZZ FORUM boasted three different language editions: Polish, English and German. Die Deutsche Ausgabe lasted only five years, the English version functioned for 25 years, eventually yielding to the market forces in the early ’90s. We said goodbye and wrote “Last Issue” on the final cover. But here we are again and say hello with this Special English Edition, put together in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute for the occasion of Jazzahead! 2018, as a banner publication representing the huge contingent of Polish jazz artists invited to perform in Bremen.

This unique issue is meant to be a guide to the vast Polish jazz program at the Bremen fair, with in-depth interviews with stars of the gala concert, and profiles of groups invited to perform at the Polish Night showcase, but it also serves as a compendium of Polish jazz in a nutshell – a brief story of Polish jazz, and of JAZZ FORUM itself, and its memorable covers; a calendar of the most important jazz festivals, the critics’ poll results showing who matters on the scene today, record and book review sections, and an essay discussing whether there is a distinct Polish school of jazz, and what makes it sound a little different from the music played in other countries.

We have tried to make it look like a regular issue, giving it a facelift with striking photos, a new layout and stylish graphic design.

For some us this Polish jazz extravaganza is the peak, for others only a start. Hello! However you feel, Polish up your jazz and have fun!

Paweł Brodowski
Editor