Marcin Masecki is a Polish jazz pianist from Warsaw, born in 1982. He grows up between Poland, Colombia and the United States, moving from Warsaw to Popayán as a baby, then to San Francisco at the age of seven, before returning to Poland to continue his piano studies. His father, a clarinetist, begins teaching him harmony, rhythm and singing when he is three, and he later studies with his grandmother and with his first jazz piano teacher, Jurek Kossacz.

Early musical training

By the age of 12, Masecki is a regular participant in weekly jam sessions at Warsaw’s Akwarium Jazz Club. At 14, he enters the F. Chopin secondary music school. He also starts playing in his first band, a trio with Wojtek Pulcyn and Grzegorz Grzyb, and the group tours jazz competitions in Poland, winning several awards.

Alchemik and other early bands

At the Jazz nad Odra competition in 1998, he meets members of the Acoustic Jazz Sextet and joins the group a week later. The band takes the name Alchemik and records three albums between 1998 and 2004. It performs in Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Spain, and wins the main prize at the Jazz Hoeilaart competition in 1998. Masecki also plays in Oxen during this period. That group explores a more electric, aggressive jazz sound, records the album Nexo, and then disbands.

Studies in Boston and TAQ

In 2000, Masecki graduates from the F. Chopin music school and receives a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. While there, he studies with trombonist Hal Crook, whom he credits with changing his approach to music, and meets drummer Ziv Ravitz and bassist Garth Stevenson. The three form TAQ after a spontaneous recording session. After he returns to Poland, the group continues to organise concert tours a few times a year.

Later projects and classical work

After Berklee, Masecki divides his time between Poland and Argentina, where his wife is from. In 2005 he marries Candelaria Saenz Valiente and later moves with her to Warsaw. He is active in several projects, including TAQ, a duo with Saenz Valiente, a duo with drummer Sebastian Frankiewicz, solo concerts, the Zbigniew Wegehaupt Quartet and the Innocent Sorcerers band. Alongside jazz work, he remains closely involved with classical music and becomes especially interested in the classical era. He organises a clavichord recording session in Grimbergen, Belgium, and records sonatas and fantasias by W. A. Mozart.

Awards

His awards include first prize in the International Jazz Piano Competition in Moscow in 2005. With Alchemik, he wins the Grand Prix at the Jazz Hoeilaart competition in Brussels in 1998 and an individual prize for best soloist at the same festival. With Wojtek Pulcyn and Grzegorz Grzyb, he wins first prize at the Jazz Siedlce competition in 1998, the “Key to Career” prize at Pomorska Jesien Jazzowa, second prize at the Jazz Sarteano festival in Italy, an award at Jazz Juniors in Kraków, and an award at Jazz nad Odra in Wrocław, all in 1998.