Adam Makowicz
Adam Makowicz – is a living legend not only of the Polish jazz scene, a real piano veteran. He took his first steps alongside the best. In 1962, with Tomasz Stańko, Makowicz founded the successful Jazz Darings band. It was then that he also started working with Andrzej Kurylewicz, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Urszula Dudziak, and the band Novi Singers.In 1977, he toured the USA for the first time, during which he recorded his first solo album for the prestigious Columbia Records label. A year later, he returned to the USA, but this time he stayed in New York for good.
On American stages, he has performed with artists such as Benny Goodman, Herbie Hancock, Earl Hines, Freddie Hubbard, Sarah Vaughan, Teddy Wilson, George Shearing, George Mraz, and Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden.
As a soloist, he has also performed with the best orchestras in the world, including the National Symphony of Washington, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Chester String Quartet, Amici String Quartet, and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.
His loud, musical duel with Leszek Możdżer at Carnegie Hall in 2004 was a loud echo in the American music world and beyond. The veteran's meeting with a younger virtuoso resulted in the release of an excellent concert album Makowicz vs Możdżer, at the Carnegie Hall (EMI Music Poland), which has achieved the status of a double platinum album.
Apart from typically jazz works, Makowicz often uses jazz interpretations of classical music, in particular, works by Frédéric Chopin, but also by George Gershwin, I. Berlin, J. Kern, C. Porter, and many other American composers.
He is a laureate of many awards, both Polish and international. In 2005, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. On October 12, 2009, Bogdan Zdrojewski, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, gave him the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. In 2021, he was awarded the Golden Fryderyk.
