Polish Jazz Festival returns to London

September 2026 marks the second Polish Jazz Festival to take place in London-curated, as it was in 2025, by businessman and music fanatic Łukasz Droździel. Three significant women singers form the backbone of the festival: Anna Maria Jopek (also a pianist), pop/jazz/world music star Kayah, and jazz vocal legend Urszula Dudziak. The latter celebrates her 83rd birthday in October.

“She's just a fountain of youth," says Drozdziel, “and you know, in her career, she's played with Nina Simone, Herbie Hancock, Bobby McFerrin-and she recorded with all those greats."

Although Dudziak is one of Poland's most lauded jazz artists, the country has for many years been a stronghold of jazz, with its own distinctive European style, moulded by composers and musicians like Krzysztof Komeda, Tomasz Stańko, and Michal Urbaniak.

The success of the first year has provided Droździel with the credibility to involve some iconic London venues for the first time, Cadogan Hall and Union Chapel.

How was the experience of the first year? “It was definitely a learning curve. But the response exceeded my expectations. Because we sold out all the concerts, which I think is quite unusual for the first time of asking. So that made me believe that there's a need for it. There's a communal appetite for it both from the general London and international audience, but also from the Polish diaspora. I think we had about around 55% Polish and the rest international, which is a really good mix."

The 2026 festival also includes a set from young punk-jazz exponents Kosmonauci (The Cosmonauts), as well as the premiere performance of an experimental piece called EABS.

“It's a record made by Stańko and Andrej Truskowski. It was recorded in 1976 for Polish radio during the Communist era. It was released, but was never played live. And recently, about a year ago, somebody dug it up and rediscovered and rereleased it. So we invited the band to to play it in its entirety. It's about 44 minutes from start to finish. And this will be the first public performance of that record ever. It's in the vein of a 1970s heist movie-you can feel the funk vibe of that."

Getting the festival on a sound financial footing has been essential, and Droździel has succeeded in obtaining the support of both the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Warsaw Tourist Organization.

Events continue until 27 September. Full details can be found on the Polish Jazz Festival website.