Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski (2023)

An outstanding Polish saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor, publicist and radio journalist. He was born on 27 March 1936 in Kalisz. He began his musical education at a secondary music school in Kalisz, studying piano, clarinet and trumpet. After graduating from high school, he moved to Poznań, where he continued his studies at the Faculty of Agricultural Mechanisation at the Poznań University of Technology. He then studied at the State Higher School of Music in Kraków.

He made his professional jazz debut in 1956 during the 1st Jazz Festival in Sopot, performing as a baritone saxophonist with Krzysztof Komeda's Sextet. Ptaszyn wrote his first compositions for this band, remaining with it until its dissolution in 1957. In the summer of 1958, he was selected as Poland's representative to George Wein's International Newport Band, whose leading soloist at the time was Louis Armstrong. He was the first Polish jazz musician to perform with this orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival. On the wave of success, Ptaszyn took part in several television programmes and toured with the orchestra in the Netherlands and Belgium, where he gave several concerts at Expo 58 in Brussels, at the American Theatre, alongside Sarah Vaughan, Teddy Wilson and Sidney Bechet. After returning to Poland, he took over the leadership of the Jazz Believers band (Trzaskowski, Komeda, Kurylewicz, Dyląg, Zylber), and then co-founded Andrzej Kurylewicz's band, Moderniści. He also collaborated with Jerzy Milian's radio band, Jerzy Matuszkiewicz's All Stars Swingtet, and the Poznań Radio Fifteen led by Zygmunt Mahlik. During the same period, he led such bands and artistic initiatives as: the Poznań Quintet (1958-59), Jazz Outsiders (1960-61), Polish Jazz Quartet (1963-66), the Grand Standard Orchestra string orchestra (1975-1982) and the Association for the Promotion of True Creativity ‘Chałturnik’ (1970-77). In 1968-1978, he directed the Polish Radio Jazz Studio. In 1973, together with Wojciech Karolak, he formed the band Mainstream (1973-77) and then the well-known Quartet (1978-84). At the end of the 1980s, he began collaborating with Jarosław Śmietana, which resulted in the formation of the group Sounds, then Symphonic Sound, and later Polish All Stars. Together with Henryk Majewski, he played in the band S.O.S. He has performed in Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, India and the United States. He currently leads his own sextet and quartet with Andrzej Jagodziński. He is invited as a lecturer and mentor to many national and international festivals.

He is particularly committed to promoting young artists. He has led and supported several ensembles, including New Presentation, collaborating with Wojciech Niedziela, Robert Majewski, Jakub Stankiewicz, Dariusz Oleszkiewicz, Bogdan Hołownia, Kazimierz Jonkisz, Jarosław Śmietana, and Henryk Majewski, among others. He has performed in Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, India, and the United States of America. For half a century, he has been involved in popularising jazz music. Since 1970, he has been hosting his own radio show, Trzy kwadranse Jazzu (Three Quarters of Jazz), on Polish Radio 3. He has also produced his own television programmes, including Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski prezentuje (Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski Presents).

In addition to his work as a jazz musician, he is also involved in arranging and composing. In the 1970s, he collaborated with the Belgian Radio Orchestra conducted by Etienne Vershuren, and in the 1980s with radio orchestras, including the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra conducted by Jan Pruszak, with which he performed symphonic concerts, the S-1 Studio Orchestra and Andrzej Trzaskowski's big band. He is the author of film music and several hundred compositions, including classical concerts. He has composed over a dozen songs, including for Andrzej Dąbrowski, Ewa Bem, Łucja Prus, Maryla Rodowicz, Andrzej Zaucha and the band Alibabki. Two of his compositions won the main prizes at the Polish Song Festival in Opole – Zielono mi in 1970 and Żyj kolorowo in 1979. At that time, he also began composing symphonic works. In 1975, the National Philharmonic in Warsaw hosted the premiere of his composition Wariant warszawski (Warsaw Variation) for large symphony orchestra and jazz quartet, performed by Tomasz Stańko, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Bronisław Suchanek and Czesław Bartkowski. In the following years, he composed, among others, Maestoso Combiato for orchestra and solo baritone saxophone, performed many times by H. Miśkiewicz, the orchestral piece Czytanki muzyczne (Musical Readings) and G-man for chamber orchestra and clarinet, commissioned by W. Rajski. His artistic output to date includes over 40 recorded albums.

Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski is the winner of, among others, the Golden Saxophone - an award of the magazine ‘Dookoła Świata’ (1958), the Mateusz Święcicki Award (1996) and the honorary Golden Grater (2000). He has won several competitions organised by Jazz Forum magazine in the baritone saxophone category (1983-88 and 1992-2001) and as an arranger (1992-2001). In 2007, the ZPAV Phonographic Academy honoured him with the 2006 Golden Fryderyk statuette for his lifetime achievement. In 1998, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 2007, he received the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for Merit to Culture from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2012, he was awarded the Annual Prize of the Minister of Culture in the field of music (2012) and also received Polityka's Passport for 2016 as a Creator of Culture. In the same year, he joined the group of winners of the Honorary Award of the Coryphaeus of Polish Music.

In recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements in the field of jazz music, honouring his creative contribution and special merits for the development of musical culture and artistic life, as well as the promotion of Polish jazz music abroad, the Senate of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław awarded Jan Stanisław Wróblewski (pseudonym Ptaszyn) the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in 2023.