B Side Events are bringing to London the best Polish contemporary/avant garde jazz by some of the most interesting and highly acclaimed artists to come out of Poland in recent years. Tomasz Furmanek makes his choices:

Of the five concerts in this series, the two which have the most interest for me are:

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Marcin Masecki (Publicity photo)

Marcin Masecki Jazz Trio – Friday 16 August, 6:30pm, St John’s Music Hall, Leytonstone

Warsaw born Marcin Masecki, a Polish avant garde pianist, arranger and producer, graduated at Berklee College of Music. This versatile musician is famous for his unique approach to music, which is a fusion of various genres, oscillating between jazz, classical and experimental sounds. Not easy to be classified or labelled, he was chosen by the Cold War director Paweł Pawlikowski to arrange and produce music score to the movie.

Kuba Więcek Trio – Friday 19 September, 6:30pm, St Mary’s Music Hall, Walthamstow

Kuba Więcek proposes his own variation of avant-garde jazz. Born in 1994, this very young saxophonist and composer, has already played with some of the leading representatives of world jazz, such as Mike Stern and Lee Konitz. His album Another Raindrop was released in the prestigious “Polish Jazz” series. He is an artist full of passion, daring in his approach to the sound and to musical material.

Also highly recommended:

Niechęć – 4 July, 6:30pm, St Mary’s Music Hall, Walthamstow 

Contemporary playing of this band combines jazz improvisation and synthesizer sounds, intertwining them with influences of progressive rock and film music, escaping all attempts to pigeonhole.

High Definition Quartet – 18 October, 6:30pm, St John’s Music Hall, Leytonstone 

A jazz band from Krakow, playing music that is open both to the mainstream of the genre and to the latest achievements of classical music or modern avant-garde.

EABS – 21 November, 6:30pm, Leyton Great Hall 

An exciting Polish jazz septet from Wrocław, that grew up in a hip-hop environment.

LINK: Polish Jazz London