Kazimierz Jonkisz, a legend of Polish jazz - talent from God
The 9th annual International jazz festival in Kosice´s Ges club started off in fine style last Friday, an event which has had the participation of some renowned names from the scene during its existence. Taking care that the tradition continues were a group of musicians - Lazaro Cruz (trumpet: Cuba), Monty Waters (alto sax: USA), Borys Janczarski (tenor sax: Poland), Martin Marincak (bass) and Peter Adamkovac (piano) and their program entitled a “Tribute to Miles”.
There was more than just exceptional musical performances, Davis himself would have been moved by the opening words of the ´moderator´ of the show, the world famous saxophonist Monty Waters who did his best to capture the feel of the period of this ´jazz Picasso´. This phenomenal player and composer even sang one of the ´period pieces´ a capella. And it must be said with that irreplaceable ´black feeling´. Though the concert was most of all about the frontmen (and these gentlemen were great), the rest of the group certainly had nothing to be ashamed of. The duo of Marincak and Adamkovic ticked like a Swiss watch, pressed on by Jonkisz´s old school grooves. A great start to a fine show.
A legend of the Polish jazz scene, drummer Kazimierz Jonkisz has been introduced in these pages before. Born in the town of Wilamowice, and voted the best jazz drummer of his country in the late 70´s, he has worked with some of the top personalities from the world of jazz during his rich career. He has many successful shows across Europe behind him, as well as several albums rated highly by fans and critics alike, both as a guest player and as headliner himself. He gave us some time for a chat shortly after the show.
If I am not mistaken, your hometown of Wilamowice is not far from Auschwitz, as place given something more than a bad name during the war for its camps…
“As it happens, not far from the place I was born you will find Oswiecim. Though I did´t live through the war myself, from what my mother said it was something awful. Of course I have been there for a look myself, but a place like that can only be visited once… I was there long enough to say some prayers and quickly got away. I had a bad feeling from the whole thing.”
But let´s rather get back to your music, which you began as a ten year old. Your first instrument was the accordion?
“Look, my father was a miner and worked hard his whole life. His wish was to arrange everything so that my brother and I didn´t have to follow in his footsteps… At home we had one old ´classic´ accordion which my father would take out once in a while. One day, I think I was in fourth grade, I asked my dad if he would let me try for a while. I played a few tunes, and then my father asked me, surprised, where I had learned them. I said: ˇFrom watching you´ (ha ha). He figured that I must have some natural talent for music which would be a shame to let drift, so got me into the conservatory in the town Bialsko Biala.”
So how did you arrive at the drums?
“At the entrance tests to the conservatory. The members of the committee felt that I had some natural talent, but were not so sure if they wanted me to continue with the accordion. They were quite struck by how I caught the rhythm. One of the members put a kind of drum kit on the table so that I would repeat after them. I did what they told me, and the combinations became longer and longer. To this day I still remember how one member of the board shook his head as if they had not seen anyone like me yet. Despite this, when my mother came down to look at the results which were hanging on the gate in front of the school, down around the bottom of the list of accepted was ´Kazimierz Jonkisz - drums´. To be honest, my family was not too impressed by this, they wanted a ´serious´ musician. At our place drums were looked upon as some second rate instrument. When a group came to play around our place, people said that three musicians and a drummer are coming (ha ha). At school I really hit the classics, jay was forbidden, we couldn´t even play it in the practice room. In ´63 some classmates and I formed a Dixieland band. When the director of the school found out, he took away our stipends…”
… and this is one of the reasons why you have remained faithful to jazz to this day..?
“Exactly. As they say, nothing tastes quite like forbidden fruit, and I had been cultivating a real heartfelt relationship with jazz. It should be remembered that during my school days, jazz recordings and music sheets were almost impossible to find. So if someone got something, they really protected it, no lending, nothing. We later got the shortwave Voice of America and it had one show every week devoted to jazz, can you imagine what this meant for us? When I first heard Coltraine´s “Blue Train” I was blown away.”
Despite the orders and commands, you became an appreciated musician in Poland relatively early…
“In ´71, after finishing the musical academy in Katowice, I got an offer to plaz with Zbigniew Namyslowski, one of the top men on the local jazz scene. He had found me while I was still at the conservatory - he was a kind of music scout - always on the lookout for good young talent. Most of all, in 1967 at a jazz festival in Odra I received the award for best instrumentalist, and that surely helped. The best musicians always came together in his band, so it was a great school and made me visible as well. By the way, after winning the award at the festival, the director of my school approached that he was proud of us and that the stipendium would be returned… He even made an offer for me to play jazz at the school, under the condition that I come to hit the drums at Mayday celebrations and so on (ha ha). In Katowice I studied the classics at first, but at the same time they opened the first class in Central Europe geared toward jazz. Since we were the first students, the professors wanted us to make fast progress to start things up, so we played jazz almost exclusively.”
Over the years you have appeared on stage with many top jazzmen of the world. Then a time came when you formed a band under your own name. Did this have any significant meaning to you, you didn’t have a great deal more input on the repertoire, figuring once again ´just´ as a drummer, though with a big name..?
“You know, in Poland you might have a hard time finding a jazz musician whom I haven´t played with. During that period I played with just about everybody. Therefore in ´78 I chose to be the first Polish drummer to form his own band and name it after himself. Perhaps one reason was that during those years, I had heard the old refrain too often - ´a chicken isn´t a bird, and a drummer isn´t a musician´ (ha ha). My attempt was to help the young talented musicians who couldn´t realize themselves, drawing some attention to them with my known name. I took great pleasure in the fact that these boys got the chance to play at some prestigious jazz festivals, at the best halls. Not as some kind of underdog, but up there with the big stars. What can be more beautiful than to help develop talent in some young people which otherwise might be waiting for its chance a whole lifetime?”
From the viewpoint of today, you are a representative of the so-called old school. Does it bother you to hear something like that?
“Just the opposite, I am proud of it. Of course within jazz as well as other types of music I listen to the modern trends, but to tell the truth it doesn´t mean that much to me. Back in the 50´s, that is where my heart lives.”
As you see it, for the success of a musician, how much of a role is the God-given talent, and how much is gained through drilling and practice?
“I would say it is about 50/50. Without talent, and without regular training, you cannot really become a good musician. The generation of today has a great advantage in this respect, that being access to information. As I said, in my time there was a problem just to get some music notes from a jazz song, something the youth of today must only laugh at.”
Once I ran into the phrase that jazz cannot be learned in the practice room…
“This I likely do not agree with personally. In the practice room a musician can find the little mistakes and so on. I also think that a musician who really loves the music can put just about the emotion into it regardless of whether it is live or not. Plus, it often happens that the concert itself is a kind of test. This being the case when a small number of fans come. Every band goes through this. Myself, when I play I don´t really notice if there are five fifty or five hundred watching - I concentrate on the music. So I don´t differentiate much between the concert hall and the practice session.”
Igor Petruska
Photo: Karol Hatala
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