Tomasz Dąbrowski & The Individual Beings + Johanna Elina Sulkunen (PL/FI/DK/NO)

Polish trumpeter and composer Tomasz Dąbrowski (b. 1984) has featured on sixty albums, but this year’s Tampere Jazz Happening will be the first time he is performing in Finland. His sound and style may sound somewhat familiar, however, and this is no coincidence. Dąbrowski had as his early source of inspiration and role model, and later received personal encouragement from, trumpeter and composer Tomasz Stańko, a pioneer of Polish jazz, a long-time visitor to Finland, and the blood brother of drummer Edward Vesala.

Dąbrowski’s first visit will be made complete by the fact that on Friday evening, he will play on the very same stage in Pakkahuone hall at Tullikamari where Stańko performed twice with his bands, first a quartet in 2005 and later a quintet in 2011. Stańko was immediately recognisable both times, and this is something he stressed to his younger namesake: the key is finding your unique sound that stands out, wherever you are.

The name of Dąbrowski’s band visiting Tampere, The Individual Beings, stems from this piece of advice and was actually borrowed from Stańko. In his autobiography titled Desperado, he stressed the feeling that he is above all an “individual being”, a unique individual.

Of course, this is much more easily said than done, but Dąbrowski had the circumstances on his side in a way. He moved to Denmark to study in 2008 – first to Odense and then on to Copenhagen – and was forced to put together his own groups because “no one wanted to play with him” at first.

Dąbrowski, who now lives in southern Sweden, has consequently made a significant part of his recordings with Danish musicians, even if the mainly Polish group coming to the Jazz Happening only contains a single Dane. In addition to this person, the ensemble includes a Norwegian and a Finn, Johanna Elina Sulkunen (b. 1979), a singer, composer and improviser with a unique voice who has settled in Copenhagen.

While Sulkunen does not sing on Dąbrowski’s albums inspired by Stańko (2020 and 2022), this will not keep her back at the Jazz Happening. In Pakkahuone, Dąbrowski plans to perform brand new compositions from his group’s third album that he is currently working on.