Jazz Juniors Competition

BLU/BRY
Founded by a group of friends in 2019, the quintet went a long way from meetings of friends to jointly writing arrangements to collective music composition. Their relations were becoming increasingly closer with time, reinforced by participation in numerous music festivals and competitions, including Jazz on the Odra, JazzCamera, Junior Jazz Festival Wadowice, Enter Enea Festival, and others. Currently all the band members are studying in Denmark, where they also take the opportunity to prepare new music material. The band combines modern jazz with world music influences and frequently contagious enthusiasm for joint music-making.

Members: Jan Kusz (sax), Tomek Kusz (trumpet), Jakub Letkiewicz (piano), Stanisław Banys (drums), Franciszek Wicke (bass guitar, double bass)

CYRYL LEWCZUK QUARTET
Set up by classmates from the Jazz and Popular Music Faculty of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, the band is open to diverse inspirations ranging from post-bop to fusion. Their original compositions are like collective musical tales that only fully take shape in the minds of sensitive listeners. These flexible forms leave much space for interpretation for both performers and the audience. The quartet has appeared, among others, during the 26th Bielsko Jazz Blizzard and the 60th Jazz on the Odra, where they won the Wojtek Siwek Jazz Individuality Contest Special Award of Wrocław Cultural Zone.

Members: Cyryl Lewczuk (sax), Jan Maciejowski (piano), Jan Dudek (double bass), Adam Barański (drums)

ADAM BARAN & HELICOPETS
Led by composer and guitarist Adam Baran, who is part of Warsaw’s alternative and improvised music scene, the band draws on minimal, ambient, and electronic music styles. Its leader focuses on space and trance, using a wide palette of electronic means, for instance treating the instrument like a sampler and then returning to a classical, almost mainstream performance style. Other elements that contribute to the band’s sound are the (frequently amplified) bass clarinet, as well as bass guitar, Moog, and drums. The band’s innovative and open-minded approach is definitely one of its assets.

Members: Adam Baran (electric guitar), Józef Biegański (drums, electronics), Panilas (bass clarinet), Piotr Zygma (bass guitar, Moog)

REBOOT THE MOOD
The quintet came into being in Dresden under the COVID-19 pandemic. Its members decided to use the time without concerts and music events creatively to play jam sessions together and write new music. Though drawing on the fusion style, they distinguished themselves from other electric bands from the start by focusing on their own compositions – successfully, as it turned out. Now based in Leipzig, they play concerts in Germany and throughout Europe.

Members: Laurin Köller (trumpet), Philip Adam (guitar), Gabriel Gutierrez (piano), Neil Richter (double bass), Moritz Grosch (drums)

VINCENT MEISSNER TRIO
Led by pianist Vincent Meissner, the trio has already attracted the attention of German and US jazz reviewers. After a much critically acclaimed debut album, their second disc was hailed by the US Downbeat magazine as ‘exciting’. Meissner’s talent developed under the guidance of Michael Wollny. It therefore comes as no surprise that, despite its relatively short history, the band has already performed at many European clubs and festivals.

Members: Vincent Meissner (piano), Josef Zeimetz (double bass), Henri Reichmann (drums)

ZBIGNIEW CHOJNACKI (accordion, electronics)
An accordionist, electronic music performer, composer and improviser, always willing to take daring musical risks with his accordion and wide range of electronic equipment. His solo improvisations oscillate between song, ambient, noise, drone, jazz, electronic and broadly conceived chamber music. Every meeting with the audience, instrument and performance space is quite different and unique – relaxed or hurried, but invariably on the lookout for new melodic combinations.

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