Polish trombonist Dzimek Markiewicz is one of the best friends of this paper, having been a listener to Andy Senior’s RADIOLA! program for years ahead of his relaunch of The American Rag as The Syncopated Times almost a decade ago. Andy can even be heard introducing one of the tracks on this album in a clip from RADIOLA! Dzimek, who many know as Dymitr, wishes to emphasize his Polishness now with the new handle. My attempt to draw a clear parallel from Dzimek to Dymitr fell flat, it seems to be a surname, not a first name, and has no meaning I could find that would imply usage as a nickname. Anywho…if you have had the pleasure to correspond with Dzimek/Dymitr he has undoubtedly shared his exuberant love of traditional jazz and probably attached a few MP3s for you to enjoy.
Enjoy you will, he has been active in the robust Polish Jazz scene since the late ’50s, the Warsaw Stompers may have been his earliest band. Over his 80-plus years he has made remarkable music with remarkable musicians in a variety of settings. When I first started with this paper I was given a stack of CDs that featured him or his friends and they quickly became among my favorites. Tracks from some of those bands, including the Ragtime Jazz Band, Paul and his Gang, the Five O’Clock Orchestra, Maritime Stompers, Dansk-Svensk Jazzforsyning, and the Polish-Swedish Connection are featured on this two CD collection. If those names aren’t familiar to you then I suggest you acquire a copy to introduce yourself to a new world of great jazz. At least one featured artist is probably already a favorite of yours…more on that below.
The Ragtime Jazz Band referred to here is a very large and very hot group that started in the mid ’60s and became a cornerstone of Polish trad jazz. Their 1966 album, available dubbed from vinyl on YouTube, is worth a listen. Aggressively fast in a way Scott Joplin might tut tut, the album has a music box quality that does straddle jazz and ragtime. Inspiringly unique, the Ragtime Jazz Band helped a whole culture of jazz in Poland to endure long after the American Jazz Ambassadors of the 1950s had passed through. They sound a bit less atypical on two of the three tracks on which they feature here, but still cut it up.
The Five O’Clock Orchestra has been going in Poland since 1969 and hosts an annual jazz festival in their hometown. I reviewed their Jubilee album back in 2018. Indeed I have reviewed at least a half dozen Polish records over the years thanks to Dzimek, and Scott Yanow has reviewed others, including one by Paul and His Gang, a group that features on ten tracks across these two CDs. Paul and his Gang opens up the second front of Dzimek Markiewicz’s uniquely European jazz career. Paul Strandberg and his band are from Sweden. A land on the other side of the Iron Curtain that somehow Dzimek created strong jazz friendships with going back to at least 1965.
It was in that year he invited cornetist Hans Carling to visit Poland and record that album I mentioned above with the Ragtime Jazz Band. There is a track late in that 1966 release titled “Mr. Carling” which is included in this set. Are lightbulbs going off yet? Yes, Hans is the father of Gunhild Carling, and leader of the Carling Family Band which would maintain Swedish-Polish Connections for decades to come.
This album is not only a retrospective on Dzimek’s career, but a tribute to several of his many friends. It is subtitled “A tribute to Guhild & Papa Carling and Paweł Tartanus and Frans Sjöström.” Paweł was part of the Swing Workshop a very impressive band who I had the pleasure to review some years ago. Frans Sjöström was a bass saxophonist styled on Adrian Rollini who brought that unique sound to many great European bands. I have sadly written obituaries for both Tartanus and Sjöström in the last several years.
With three of four featured artists being from Sweden, the album is in many ways a tribute to the Swedish connection in his life. Dzimek is understandably thrilled to see Gunhild Carling making such a splash in America and even raise her own family band to internet stardom and gigs at Birdland. She is heard here at nine years old, playing a song Dzimek wrote for her titled “Gunhild.”
The track is easy to find on YouTube; it comes from a Polish television show with Cooling’s Jazzmen, where you can watch the whole concert. In case you are wondering she is astoundingly good on trombone even at that age. “China Boy” is also from that set and will blow you away. The sound quality is far superior to what is on YouTube.
This collection will expose you to a number of other talented Carlings as well. Jazz families aren’t unusual but I can’t think of any outside of New Orleans dynasties this large. Nana Carling, Gunhild’s niece, has also been making an international name for herself, and has a track on this album that must be somewhat recent.
As far as timing, The Maritime Stompers seem to be a group he was with around the ’90s, at least some of the Paul and his Gang material likely comes from their 2000 tour to North America, and The Dixie Fellows seem to be his most recent group as I found shows scheduled in 2023. The addition of a year next to each track would have been very helpful, and my Google mojo hits a wall somewhere along the old Iron Curtain, but I believe I’ve mapped it all out correctly.
If the limited liner notes leave you curious just reach out to Dzimek Markiewicz for the answer, he is a friend in jazz worth cherishing. Once you pop the cork on Polish traditional jazz you will want to hear more of it, and Dzimek Markiewicz is the greatest guide still living.
My Best Recordings with Various Orchestras
Dzimek Markiewicz
almlunda.garden@gmail.com
Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com
