Zbigniew Sifert, a masterful improviser who could rank at the top alongside Adam Makowicz or Michal Urbaniak was a Polish jazz artist. However, his early death left Poland without one of its most prominent jazz musicians. Seifert began playing the violin at six years old and then switched to alto sax ten years later. Although he studied violin at the University of Krakow in his early years, when he began leading his own band in 1964, Seifert primarily played alto, which was a testament to the influence of John Coltrane. Seifert was part of Tomasz Stanko’s highly advanced quintet (1969-1973). He switched to violin after which he largely stopped playing the sax. In 1973, he moved to Germany, joined Hans Koller’s Free Sound (1974-1975), and then freelanced (including with Joachim Kuhn). Seifert was a performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1976 with John Lewis, and recorded the next year with Oregon. Seifert, affectionately called “Zbiggy”, was a leader and performed music that varied from free jazz to fusion. Seifert recorded music for Muza from 1969 to 1976, Mood 1974-1976, MPS 1976, and Capitol 1977-1978. He died of cancer at the age of 32. from from www.zbigniewseifert.org
