Ula
Ula is a jazz love story shot in Super 8. It’s the life story of Urszula Dudziak, one of the greatest Polish jazz vocalists of all time. Her journey from a small Polish village, Straconka, behind the Iron Curtain, to New York and the best jazz clubs seemed almost impossible. When success came, Michał–her husband but also a band leader–left for another woman. Ula’s world collapsed.
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When it comes to jazz musicians from Poland, Urszula Dudziak may be an unfamiliar name even to jazz fans who may be familiar with Tomasz Stanko, who was introduced through the ECM label. Born in 1943, she was fascinated by American jazz and started singing along to the radio as a child. At the age of 14, she was put on stage by Krzysztof Komeda, the pianist known as the “Chopin of Polish jazz” at the time who composed film scores for director Roman Polanski. Dudziak left Poland during the Cold War, which banned jazz as Western music and attempted to perform in America. She achieved great success in the American jazz scene in the 1970s-1980s with her outstanding scat vocals that spanned five octaves. Through her own narration and personal footage shot with an 8mm camera along with the wealth of material footage, we are invited to the exciting journey of a musician from Poland, which used to be on the outskirts of jazz, achieving great success in the home of jazz. (CHUN Jinsu)
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TVP Polish Television; Agencja Reklamowa KOMA2⎜lara.adamczyk@tvp.pl
Agnieszka IWAŃSKA