Jazz Mass
If you're strolling through Plac Dominikanski this evening you may hear some peculiar sounds emanating from the dignified looking church on the eastern corner of the square. Tonight sees the beginning of the much-loved Zaduszki Jazz Festival, the oldest jazz event in central Europe. To kick things off, the goodly Dominican monks are hosting a jazz mass to get everybody in the mood. Don't expect to see the monks themselves jiving around the choirstalls, but a memorable evening is likely nonetheless.
Jazz and an eight hundred year old Polish monastery might seem like two rather alien worlds, and indeed, a major council was recently held in Cracow on the appropriate forms of classical music - let alone jazz - that should be played in churches. However, jazz and the Polish church have more in common than might first appear.
The Catholic Church is generally credited with having shepherded the nation through the difficult valley of the communist era. Church buildings themselves offered a solace and an escape from the drabness of that epoch, whilst the episcopate produced some extraordinarily inspiring leaders, beginning with the survivor from the old order Cardinal Adam Sapieha, through to Primate Stefan Wyszynski and Karol Wojtyla, today's Pope.
Other more junior figures such as Jozef Tischner, and the martyr Jerzy Popieluszko (who was murdered by the communists) have also attained cult status.
But where does jazz fit in to all of this? Some Polish academics credit the buccaneering jazz stations of America with almost as significant a role as Radio Free Europe in rocking Stalin's Polish boat. In the late 1950's and early sixties jazz achieved a cult status of its own in Poland, filtering into Polish cinema as well. The music was celebrated as a form of rebellion against the stringent communist system - jazz clubs and festivals were a place of solidarity, much as were great religious festivals and pilgrimages of the era.
But enough historical pish pash - why not head for the Dominican Church tonight and jive it up with the Brothers D - it's surely the perfect way to shake off those November blues.
Jazz Mass: 7.30 pm at the Dominican Church, Plac Dominikanski (corner of ul. Stolarska)