The Story Behind The Jacksonville Jazz Series

By Paul Lentz

In 1982 I traveled with the New Orleans Excelsior Brass Band to perform at the Mayport (Florida) jazz festival and became friendly with the producer, who was an aide to the Mayor of Jacksonville. The festival subsequently relocated to Jacksonville and aligned with PBS station WJCT to produce the first Jacksonville and All That Jazz Festival in 1983. Aware of the success of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival poster, I suggested that the Jacksonville festival offer a poster for sale as a means of yielding additional revenue. After some negotiation, I entered into an agreement to produce a series of posters for the festival, under the auspices of Art Posters, Inc. Having secured the contract, I needed to produce the poster. In effect, it necessitated artwork that would have a lasting and significant appeal to the public. During this time, a 1983 edition of Smithsonian Magazine had a cover story entitled “The Power of Polish Posters.” The cover featured a poster by Waldemar Swierzy and the accompanying story was intriguing. This was when the Solidarity movement was beginning in Poland and was at the height of the cold war between the U.S. and Soviet Union. I decided to contact the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. to see whether any of the artists under their control would be interested in submitting artwork for possible reproduction in the U.S. They were helpful in arranging for several artists to submit samples. The best of the lot was an impressionistic trumpet player by Waldemar Swierzy. The Swierzy artwork grabbed you immediately, which is exactly what you want in a poster.

I entered into an agreement with Ars Polona, the marketing agency for the Polish Government, which controlled cultural works, to purchase the art for the first edition. I then signed a contract for the printing of the poster, consisting of 2,500 numbered posters: 1000 signed and numbered, along with 100 artists proof posters selling for $20, $35.and $85 respectively. Naturally, I needed the artist to come to America for both promotional purposes and to sign those posters requiring his signature. Unfortunately, this was not a simple matter for the Cold War was at its peak and the U.S., was enforcing an international embargo against all communist countries including Poland. There were numerous travel restrictions emanating in both directions. I explained to the Polish Embassy that we needed to get the artist to Jacksonville. Poland had no objection to his traveling to the U.S. but he would need permission from the American government and the embargo precluded that. No one from behind the Iron Curtain was being admitted to the U.S. It so happened that through my connections in the jazz world I was friendly with Willis Conover who, through his Voice of America jazz broadcasts, was the most recognized radio voice in the world. The broadcasts were especially popular in Poland. Through his efforts and connections with the U.S. State Department we, at nearly the last minute, were able to bring Swierzy to the U.S. To our gratification, the reception for the artist and the poster was highly enthusiastic and the Jacksonville Times-Union featured a full color cover reproduction of the poster along with the story. The poster was a resounding success and I immediately entered into a new agreement with the artist to produce additional art for what would be a series. The four additional prints would feature a saxophone player, a guitarist, a drummer and a trombonist to complete the 5-print series. The second poster, featuring a saxophonist, was very successful and once again the subject of a Jacksonville Times-Union reproduction and cover story. Contract negotiations for the third poster in the series broke down and WJCT, then the sole producers of the festival, decided to produce their own poster. . During the first two years of our efforts, we maintained a mailing list and in turn, were able to sell the other editions of the series. People were very interested in collecting the Swierzy jazz posters. The posters went out of print and soon afterwards, were selling for as much as $700. The series of five were the only Swierzy works produced in the United States during the time of the Cold War and subsequent embargo. Eventually the Solidarity Movement was successful with the subsequent liberation of Poland and Eastern Europe.