Polish Jazz - Liberalisation

Liberalisation

After the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, jazz in Poland gained renewed freedom. In 1958 Dave Brubeck visited Poland and the nation's jazz scene became influenced by cool jazz. By the sixties three strands had emerged as dominant; trad jazz, "mainstream", and free jazz. Krzysztof Komeda became the leader of a modern jazz movement that did not copy the American way of playing but developed its own "European" style.