Jazz Forum (magazine)

Jazz Forum is a European jazz magazine based in Warsaw. It was established as a quarterly in 1964 by jazz bassist Jan A. Byrczek, who served as its editor-in-chief. It was the first jazz magazine published behind the Iron Curtain and allowed Polish culture, under a communist regime, to reach out to the West.^[1] Jazz was, as Willis Conover liked to say, "the music of freedom;" and to those who had no freedom, it became a metaphor of hope. At its peak, in the late 1970s, Jazz Forum was being published in Polish, English, and German and distributed in 103 countries.^[1]

Paul Brodowski is the current editor-in-chief. Jazz Forum is published 8 times a year and, as of 2012, circulation is approximately 8,000. The first publication was in Polish only. It was published in English from 1967 to 1989 and in German from 1976 to 1981. Around 1969, Jazz Forum became the official publication of the European Jazz Federation. In 1970, the magazine had contributing correspondents from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Great Britain, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. In 1970, it was distributed by B.K.W.Z. (Ruch) from Warsaw and Buch Hansa from Hamburg. Jazz Forum is currently distributed by Empik and has received funding from the International Music Council.

Critical acclaim

Wolfram Knauer (de) called Jazz Forum one of the most important jazz publications of the 1970s and 1980s.^[2]

References

External links

• Official website
• PolishJazzArch, Monthly archive of Jazz Forum (1965–1989)