Muzeum Jazzu im. Leopolda Tyrmanda

What to expect

Room 107 in the YMCA building at Konopnickiej 6, in the Powisle neighbourhood. This is not a traditional museum with exhibition halls and a ticket office - it is a foundation headquarters and collection storage point whose holdings have been touring Poland since 2012 as travelling exhibitions (154 shows in 47 cities).

But the address carries enormous weight. On 30 May 1946, Leopold Tyrmand organised Poland’s first post-war jam session in this building - a gathering of jazz musicians who had survived the war. Tyrmand lived here for nine years (1946-1955), and from here jazz radiated across Poland. The same Tyrmand who later coined the name “Jazz Jamboree” (1958) and wrote the novel “Zly” (The Bad).

The collection was built from the ground up - 226 donors contributed instruments (Wlodzimierz Nahorny’s saxophone, Mieczyslaw Mazur’s accordion), over 1,000 photographs (Marek Karewicz negatives), hundreds of concert posters, musical manuscripts, vinyl records, stage costumes. Donors include Michal Urbaniak, Ewa Bem, Andrzej Rosiewicz, Carmen Moreno.

The foundation also runs 11 online e-exhibitions at muzeumjazzu.pl (Komeda, Tyrmand, Jazz Jamboree, pre-war jazz) and organises the International Youth Jazz Competition “Magnolia.”

Future ambition: a full-scale museum at the corner of Dobra and Zajecza streets in Powisle - student architectural designs from Warsaw University of Technology exist, but construction still awaits funding.

Tips

• Visits by prior arrangement only: +48 690 690 110.
• Free admission.
• Easiest way to see the collection: Night of Museums (May) - the one occasion each year to visit without booking.
• Online e-exhibitions at muzeumjazzu.pl are available anytime - including the 24-part “Komeda - Life Calendar.”
• The same YMCA building houses Scouting Museum (ul. Konopnickiej 6), Studio Buffo theatre, and Centralny Basen Artystyczny (a music club in a former swimming pool).

Getting there

Bus: Rozbrat or Solec stop on ul. Solec/Czerniakowska - lines 108, 118, 127, 131.

Tram: Al. Jerozolimskie / Nowy Swiat, then 10 minutes walk south.

Metro: Nowy Swiat-Uniwersytet (M2) - 15 minutes walk.

Nearby museums

In the same building: Scouting Museum (ul. Konopnickiej 6 - history of ZHP and the scouting movement). Nearby: Earth Museum (al. Na Skarpie 20/26, 150 m - geology, minerals, fossils).