Wojciech Karolak

Born May 28, 1939 in Warszawa, died June 23, 2021 there. Polish jazz pianist, organist, composer, arranger and songwriter Debuted as a traditional jazz pianist in 1956, but played saxophone two years later in the Jazz Believers and The Wreckers, also working with the groups of Andrzej Kurylewicz and Jerzy Matuszkiewicz. Formed an eponymous piano trio with Roman Dyląg and Andrzej Dąbrowski in 1962, and was with Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski for three years from 1963. While living in Sweden from 1966 to 1973, he worked with Michał Urbaniak. In 1973, he began performing on the B3 Hammond organist and, until 1978, was with Wróblewski's Mainstream group. Deciding to concentrate on composition from 1979, he wrote pop and cabaret songs which were mostly set to lyrics by his wife, Maria Czubaszek. Larger works followed.