Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition

The gala concert of the 1st Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition featured Moore, Feldman and Professor Stefański. With Kaczmarczyk in the piano chair the quartet gave an absorbing performance that combined pronounced groove, ("Zbigy's Walk") atmospheric minimalism, ("One-Humped Camel") knotty abstraction/free jazz ("Ink Pin") edgy yet pulsating left-field vibes ("Leather Cats") and a little of all the above in the set closer ("Five Senses of Keen").

The music continued long into the night with a jam session in one of Kraków's legendary venues, the underground jazz club, the Piwinca pod Baranami. Standing at the entrance and looking at the club' sign, Professor Stefański recalled how he had played his first gig with Zbigniew Seifert's quartet in this same jazz club back in 1966, in the difficult times under Communist rule when obtaining visas to travel was extremely difficult: "We played so great, free jazz!" Stefański said animatedly. "We were dreaming about freedom."

There was plenty of freedom in the underground jazz bar that night. Old hands like Stefański and impressive young talent like Dobosz, trombonist Marek Michalak and electric bassist Jan Kozlinski jammed with Omura, Slongo, Anick and pianist Glenn Zaleski in unselfconscious celebration. It was the perfect finale to four memorable days of music.

Could the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation and the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition perhaps be Seifert's most significant legacy? "I think so," said Professor Stefański nodding his head, "When we were organizing the Zbigniew Seifert competition I went to the internet and put his name and there was so much information. Ten years ago there was nothing. Wikipedia was just a few words: "Zbigniew Seifert, Polish violin player born in Kraków, Died." Things written maybe thirty years ago are now on the internet."

So too is Seifert's music, with many of his songs on You Tube. On the first day of the competition, Jason Anick was talking about the unlimited self-study opportunities You Tube offers: "If I watch Charlie Parker a hundred times I feel like I'm studying with him. You can study with whoever you want. You just have to be a really good student." Clearly, there are students in far flung corners of the world studying with Seifert some thirty five years after his death. It's a situation that greatly pleases Stefański: "I didn't know that we have so many jazz violin players in the world," he enthused. "The violin is enjoying a renaissance in jazz."

This renaissance is being aided by the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation. Its efforts to promote Seifert—and jazz in general—through the Zbigniew Seifert International Violin Competition is helping unearth, encourage and promote some of the world's most talented violinists.

Wrap Up

For Tomoko Omura, who traveled from New York to participate largely because of Seifert, the whole experience has been an edifying one: "It's been really inspiring" she said. Stanislaw Słowiński, bitterly disappointed not to make the final but thrilled with the audience's Best Violinist award summed up his experience thus: "It was a great pleasure for me to be part of the Seifert Competition—better to say it was an honor. The possibility to play with Pawel Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Trio, and to meet all these fantastic violinists and all these fantastic people—that was the biggest award."

This violin competition serves not only as a symbol of Seifert's greatness and as a vehicle through which to promote that idea, but it also fosters future working relationships. Already, some of the violinists were making arrangements to get together and jam or play each other's concerts in the near future. Musicians have also cemented relationships with representatives of the media, which will surely further help promote the individual musicians and the jazz violin. In just its first edition, Seifert's violin competition has done much to highlight the extraordinary breadth and depth, both historically and in contemporary terms, of Polish jazz.

The first edition of any festival/musical enterprise of this nature is the start of a learning curve. For the Seifert Foundation there will no doubt be lessons to learn and a little fine tuning to do before the 2nd Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition in 2016. However, on the whole the competition has been a great success on many levels, not least for the quality of the music that was presented.The dream makers deserve the loudest ovation.

In the final analysis this violin competition in Zbigniew Seifert's name is maybe just the spark that will light greater fires. For as the 20th century thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote: "Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased."

Photo Credit: Krzysztof Warejko

Anybody interested in supporting the work of the Seifert Foundation in promoting the important musical legacy of Zbigniew Seifert should contact the Zbigniew Seifert Foundation website.

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