Sopot Jazz Festival 1956

Melomani

The first official jazz festival in Sopot was held in August 1956 and welcomed around 50 thousand people. At that time Poland was under communist rule and in many ways cut off from the rest of the world. The public television was controlled by the government and it was rare to hear of see forieign culture from behind the iron curtain. Sopot was known as the window to the world because of  its close proximaty to sea ports where the sailors and tourists brought music like jazz on vinyls, magazines and newspapers from abraod.

People were tired of the Russian music promoted by the state and played on any radio station most of the time. The festival brought a party to the town which was going on 24 hours a day. People felt free, were everywhere on the streets, on the pier and by the thousends on the beaches. Jazz music become a symbol of freedom and joy.

"It is hard not to recognize the meaning of the first jazz festivals, which shaped the culture in the years to come in Poland. Taking jazz music from private places to the public is the main achievement of the Sopot Jazz Festivals. After jazz, there were other events which followed. Although the years of euphoria are long gone, jazz festivals are still one of the attractions Sopot has to offer, and consistently attract a lot of artists and spectators." (sopot.net)

The lineup of the first Sopot Jazz festival included Melomani,  Andrzej Kurylewicz Band, Zygmunt Wichary Band, Drazek i Pieciu, Jerzy Grzewinski Band, Kamil Hala Band (Czechoslovakia), Pawel Gruenspan Band, Pinokio, The Dave Burman Jazz Group (England) and first Polish modern Jazz band - Komeda Sextet with Krzysztof Komeda on piano, Jerzy Milian - vibes, Stanislaw Pludra - alto sax, Jan 'Ptaszyn ' Wroblewski - baritone sax, Jozef Stolarz - bass, and Jan Zylber on drums.