Polish jazz legend Jan ‘Ptaszyn’ Wróblewski turns 80
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
27.03.2016 09:54
Saxophone player, composer, conductor and broadcaster Jan ‘Ptaszyn’ Wróblewski celebrates his 80th birthday on Sunday.
Photo: Przemysław Jahr/Wikimedia Commons
He is the first Polish jazz performer to have played with American musicians - he was invited to join an international youth band at the prestigious Newport Festival in the US in 1958.
After that event, he toured the United States and in later decades appeared in many European countries, Asia and Africa.
His collaboration with legendary US jazz promoter Willis Conover prompted Wróblewski to launch a radio programme called ‘Trzy kwadranse jazzu’ (45 minutes of jazz), which has been broadcast on Polish Radio 3 since 1970. It is one of the longest-running music programmes in the history of Polish broadcasting.
Wróblewski’s output as a composer includes a concerto for orchestra, a concerto for tenor saxophone and orchestra, as well as popular songs and film soundtracks. (mk/pk)