PREVIEW: Alicja Śmietana and Her Special Guests in London (POSK, 29 June)

Violinist Alicja Śmietana will be the focus of a special event in Polish Centenary Year at the POSK Theatre in Hammersmith on 29 June 2018. Sebastian interviewed her as she looks forward to the concert: 

The Polish guitarist Jarek Śmietana (1951-2015) had a larger-than-life presence on the Polish jazz scene. He became a popular, charismatic and central figure and his name resonated with a wider public in Poland, and among émigré Poles as well. 

If the aura of such figures tend to leave a mark on the wider national consciousness, they also have an impact much closer to home. Indeed, talking to his only child, his daughter the violinist Alicja Śmietana, who has devised and done all the arrangements for the forthcoming concert at Posk on 29 June, that influence, that legacy is still palpable: “I've put it together because of the legacy of my father. I am a classically trained violinist, but I grew up surrounded by jazz musicians, touring with jazz musicians. It was only a matter of time before I would jump into that.” And she quotes a favourite phrase of her father’s to describe jazz: “Once you try it there is no turning back.” ....

See full preview here: http://www.londonjazznews.com/2018/06/preview-alicja-smietana-and-her-special.html