Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski*, Wojciech Karolak ‎- Mainstream (1974) Polish Jazz Vol. 40

Half way between traditional jazz and the avant-garde there is the old, good, "normal" jazz, based on the classical scheme of a theme with variations and once called the contemporary swing, be-bop, hard-bop or soul. All these varieties, once distinct, are now usually called jointly "conventional jazz" or simply "mainstream". Many jazz musicians consider that the test of a true jazzman is his ability to play well a mainstream number, no matter how good he may be at experimenting.

The close co-operation between Ptaszyn Wroblewski and Wojciech Karolak is already of many years standing. In the fifties and sixties they used to appear together, at first in "Jazz Believers" and finally in "Polish Jazz Quartet", forming a pair to whom traditional jazz had no secrets. They were as excellent in dealing with the "originals" of Silver, Davis and Ellington as they were expert in Porter's or Gershwin's "standards". Then they drifted farther and farther apart. Karolak made tours around the world, on which he played contemporary jazz and popular music, while Ptaszyn confined himself to the Jazz Studio of Polish Radio. They met again in 1973. To this first recording session, after years, Ptaszyn brought the old sheets of music. They proved unnecessary. The musicians resumed at once their common playing as if they had never ceased it. Clearly, they both love this kind of jazz. The remaining musicians - Czesfaw Bartkowski and Marek Blizinski, they too felt as if they had been playing with them for years. Indeed, it is the mainstream that unites all good jazzmen.