New Polish jazz: What does it sound like? Who’s blazing new trails in the genre? Find out this year at the OFF Festival Katowice, where we’re launching a new stage: the mBank OFF Jazz Club, featuring celebrated jazz musicians alongside up-and-coming names and acts.
“I’m proud to announce that this year’s edition of the OFF Festival will debut a new stage, one devoted entirely to Polish jazz: mBank OFF Jazz Club, showcasing established artists and noteworthy newcomers,” says Artistic Director Artur Rojek. “The OFF Festival Katowice will feature outstanding, world-class Polish jazz musicians who play by their own rules. The new generation of jazz artists take an expansive, punk-inspired approach to the genre, drawing boldly on everything from electronic music to hip-hop. By crossing musical boundaries and traditions, they connect with peers and audiences who previously weren’t into jazz. We’re witnessing a fascinating generational shift, and I’m extremely excited to throw a spotlight on it at the OFF Festival.” All of the artists in today’s announcement will be performing at the mBank OFF Jazz Club, a partnership between OFF and the brand mBank, which is returning to the festival as a sponsor after several successful editions.
Raphael Rogiński plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes
A masterpiece, performed live. That should be enough of a recommendation. Hailed by Pitchfork as a perfect encapsulation of John Coltrane’s mystical, spiritual energies, the album will be performed in its entirety at this year’s OFF Festival. First released in 2025 with the subtitle “African Mystic Music,” the record sees Poland’s most intriguing improvisational guitarist deliver fascinating reinterpretations of Coltrane through the lens of African music. It’s also a nod to the preeminent innovator of jazz poetry, Langston Hughes. Close to a decade after its initial print, the LP has been re-released with four new compositions recorded in the summer of 2024. We’ll hear it all live, in a concert setting at this year’s OFF Festival. “Playing live reinforces what we’ve done in the studio,” Raphael says, adding: “There’s more light on these tracks now!” We can’t wait to see it!
Kosmonauci
They describe themselves as a jazz boy band. Others call them one of the most interesting new bands on the improvised music scene. A 2024 reader poll by the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza chose them as the “best new face” in Polish music. They were the first band to receive the distinction in the poll’s six-year history. They also performed at last year’s Great September, where they showed off their good side and proved that the new generation of jazz artists is trading rigid genre boundaries for more freedom. “Jazz, by its very definition, is very punk. It combines everything; there are no rules – you can do whatever you want,” they say, and their actions speak louder than their words. Come see this drum’n’bass and hip-hop-inspired act at the OFF Festival!
Omasta
Keep your eyes (and ears) peeled for this one, especially if you’re interested in acts that blaze new trails while staying true to old ones. This Krakow-based band draws inspiration from jazz, hip-hop, and street culture. They’ve supported the famous American hip-hop group Slum Village, performed at the cult London club Ronnie Scott’s, and crossed paths with the Polish rap legend Peja, reinvigorating his tracks with new jazz arrangements. Omasta is now working on a debut album for Astigmatic Records, home to EABS and Błoto. We’ll hear and them live this year at the OFF Festival – twice, in fact, because the quintet will premiere their eagerly awaited new material and perform their reinterpretation of the legendary Madlib and MF Doom album Madvilliany.
midi 4
midi 4 is helmed by the pianist, composer, and producer Malina Midera, who hails from the Tri-City’s jazz and improvised music scene. She sees music as an endless journey and incessant experimentation with new objects, instruments, and sounds. In midi 4, she explores the realms of dreams and fairy tales – the subjects of her very well-received album Cats, Dogs and Dwarfs, on which she fuses improvisation, beats, and subtle melodies. A soundtrack to your imagination, perhaps? Yes, indeed! And one that’ll absorb you from the very first measure, writes a reviewer for the Polish biweekly Dwutygodnik, adding: “The Polish jazz scene is in good hands as long as artists with musical sensibilities like those of Midera and her band are at its forefront.” Don’t miss this chance to witness it live.
Deux Lynx
“A couple of fine cats” is just one label that’s been applied to the duo comprising drummer Miłosz Berdzik and guitarist Adam Jędrysik. The latter was recently nominated Poland’s top music prize, the Fryderyk, in the category of Best Debut Jazz Album, for No Soloing, Please. They’ve yet to land an award as a duo, but they do have one record under their belts, LYNXTAPE I (2024), which they describe as hip-hop beats wrapped in an experimental package. Most of their solo work remains unreleased, but they’ve performed with the likes of Marek Pospieszalski, Maciej Obara, Paulina Przybysz, and a live-band incarnation of Polish hip-hop legends Paktofonika. Teaming up as Deux Lynx, they hope to complement each other musically and create a common tongue strongly rooted in rhythm – a language that finds its fullest expression on stage.
Lumbago
Wuja HZG plays in the bands EABS, Błoto, and Kroki. Tymek Papior performs with Alan Wykpisz, Paweł Pańta, and We Do Not Pretend. Their paths crossed in Warsaw’s jazz clubs, and they ended up jamming together before finally pulling the trigger on an experimental project that explores other music scenes and regions. Lumbago is inspired by their fascination with hip-hop. You can tell by their outfits, but it’s even more apparent in their laid-back vibe and sound. They put down the tracks for their debut Lumbago in three hours flat, in their home studio. “The album is imperfect, because it was never meant to be perfect. When we made mistakes, we didn’t rerecord – we just went with the flow,” they explained in an interview for Polish Radio. Their flow takes center stage live, too: Lumbago is above all a live band, one focused on generating controlled chaos and subverting the studio versions of their tracks.
Ninja Episkopat
They initially wanted to call themselves Episkopat (“episcopal conference”), they say, but the name struck them as too tame. So they added a “ninja” for good measure and slapped a grotesque heavy-metal design on the cover of their debut album, All Thoughts Are Bad Thoughts. What do they sound like? They started off playing free jazz before eventually shifting to hip-hop, electronic music, and a more laid-back vibe. Today, the trio founded by young and talented independent artists from Poland’s jazz scene (and its environs) blurs the boundaries between avant-garde improvised music and club sounds. And they do it with such skill that reviewers report “feeling their blood flow through their veins again.” You’ll feel it, too, at the OFF Festival in August.
Hania Derej
She started playing piano at the age of six. Four years later, she was composing her own music, and at fourteen she won an award at national competition for young composers. She wrote the material for her 2024 album Evacuation, released by the Dutch label ZenneZ Records, in her senior year of high school. But that wasn’t her first LP. The talented composer, pianist, and conductor has recorded no fewer than seven albums, each in an illustrative, cinematic style, performed solo or as part of a chamber orchestra. Hania Derej – who enjoys listening to Portico Quartet, Jacob Collier, Esperanza Spalding, and Billie Eilish – thinks jazz is great. But knowing what she does today, she doesn’t want to get pigeonholed in a single genre, preferring instead to experiment with music and have fun. “I don’t want to limit myself; I want draw on different sources,” she says. And that’s exactly what we’re going to witness at the OFF Festival.
daltonists
Their approach to music involves exploring new sounds and unconventional production techniques – and the element of surprise. That’s why daltonists, hailing from Poland’s Tri-City area, revel in combining various shades of contemporary jazz, dub, Afrobeat, club music, and myriad other inspirations. They improvise a lot and enjoy composing as a live band, workshopping their material in front of audiences to see what works and what doesn’t. They couldn’t have found a better crowd: at this year’s OFF Festival, they’ll be testing material from their 2024 debut mini-album daltonists and their upcoming record.
