Play your own Thing - The first Movie on European Jazz

Traditional Jazz has never been associated with Europe. Miles, Dizzy and Charlie Parker stand for the great era in Jazz, but who knows Miroslav Vitous, Pierre Michelot, Krzysztof Komeda, Palle Mikkelborg, Tomasz Stanko, or René Urtreger? „Play Your Own Thing“ is a tribute to these champion performers, who, after World War II, were infected by the Jazz „virus“ from overseas, but were able to create paths of their own. Containing myriad distinctive qualities traditional to each country and their musical heritage, they invented a totally new form of musical expression, a sort of European identity in Jazz. These artists became true musical pioneers, opening the door for the so-called European avant-garde up until today. „Play Your Own Thing“ traces back through the encounters and musical interchanges of cultures, which are different, but have always nourished each other. The film describes musically, visually, spiritually, but never theoretically the development process of Jazz in Europe with its emancipation and expertise, its freedom and individualism, the development of numerous styles and variations, the specifically European influences and the productive differences with American ways of playing from the beginning of the Jazz Age up until today. „Play Your Own Thing“ approaches for the first time the shiny and complex whole of European Jazz and shows that its history is not much shorter than the one of American Jazz, yet its variety is much wider. The film draws the unique portrait of this kind of music, which sounds different whether you are in Spain or Poland, Norway or Italy. It is influenced by the history of mind, mentality, politics, but also by shades of light and native music – a triumph of Individualism, a thing by itself.