Quick Facts
Biography
Jarosław "Jarek" Śmietana (29 March 1951 – 2 September 2013, Kraków) was a Polish jazz guitarist, composer and band leader.
Early life and education
Śmietana was born in Kraków. He studied at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.
Career
In 1972, with the blues band "Hall", he won an award at the Jazz nad Odrą festival.
Śmietana lead the band Extra Ball in 1974. He continued to lead this band until 1981. He later was the leader of the Sounds Big Band Symphonic Sound Orchestra, the Polish Jazz Stars Band. He was also a co-leader of the Namysłowski-Śmietana Quartet.
Śmietana has performed at festivals, concert tours, and workshops in the USA, India, Asia and South America.
In 1998 he was the winner of the Fryderyk 1998 award for "Songs and Other Ballads". He was presented with the President of Cracow Prize for cultural achievement.
During his musical career he played and recorded with well-known artists, including Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, Joe Zawinul, Gary Bartz, Carter Jefferson, Vince Mednoza, John Abercrombie, Hamiet Bluiett, Idris Muhammad, Ronnie Burrage, Harvie Swartz, Mike Stern, Jack Wilkins, Zbigniew Seifert, Cameron Brown, Andy McKee, Greg Brandy, David Gilmore, Nigel Kennedy, Dave Friedman, Didier Lockwood, Jerry Goodman.
Śmietana composed over 200 jazz songs. He has led many workshops and masterclasses.
He has recorded more than 25 album as a band leader, as well as performing as a sideman on the recordings of other artists. Śmietana has collaborated with other jazz musicians to perform live shows at concert venues and festivals.
He is the father of violinist Alicja Smietana. He died in 2013. In 2015, a contest, the "International Jarek Śmietana Jazz Guitar Competition" was initiated in his memory. It was held in Kraków.
Discography
- Klaus Lenz Big Band: Live at Jazz Jamboree (1974)
- Złota Tarka '76/Jazz nad Odrą '76 (1976)
- Big Band Katowice: Jazz nad Odrą '76 (1976)
- Extra Ball: Aquarium Live (1977)
- Big Band Katowice: Madrox-Sorcerer (1977)
- Extra Ball: Marlboro Country (1978)
- Big Band Katowice: Music for my Friends (1978)
- Kilimanjaro (1978; with Zbigniew Seifert)
- Extra Ball: Mosquito (1981)
- Extra Ball: Akumula Torres (1983)
- Prasad In Mangalore (1983; with Sławomir Kulpowicz)
- Extra Ball: Birthday (1984)
- Extra Ball: Go Ahead (1985)
- Henryk & Robert Majewski Sextet: Continuation
- Talking Guitar
- From One To Four
- Sound & Colours
- Touch Of Touch
- Jarosław Śmietana: Polish Jazz
- Jarek Śmietana Trio - Cooperation (1992)
- Wipe
- Flowers In Mind
- Śmietana Live In New York
- Live At The Jazz Jamboree (1994; with Eddie Henderson)
- A Time For Love (1995; with Andrzej Dąbrowski)
- Plays Gershwin (1996; with Bradem Terrym)
- Plays Ellington (1996; with B. Terrym)
- Phone Consultations (1996; with Wojciech Karolak)
- Meeting Point (1996; with Cezariusz Gadzina)
- Songs And Other Ballads (1997)
- Plays Standards (1998; with Art Farmer)
- Kind Of Live (1998; with Ryszard Styła)
- Speak Easy (1998; with John Abercrombie)
- Extra Cream (1999)
- African Lake (1999; with Gary Bartz)
- Groove Band (2000)
- Tomasz Szukalski - Jarek Śmietana Quartet (2000)
- Out Of The Question (2001, with John Purcell)
- Everything Ice (2002; with Karen Edwards)
- Vis-a-Vis (2003; with Zbigniew Paleta)
- A Story Of Polish Jazz (2004)
- Autumn Suite (2006)
- What's Going On? (2006; with Wojciech Karolak)
- Revolution (2008)
- The Good Life (2008)
- Psychedelic - music of Jimi Hendrix (2009;
- A Tribute to Zbigniew Seifert (2009)
- I Love the Blues (2011)
- Live at Impart (2012)
- I Believe (2013)
Singles
- A Story of Polish Jazz