End of an era
No longer will there be any improvisational noodling spilling out onto ulica Emilii Plater. Akwarium, the country's most famous jazz club and a Warsaw institution for 23 years, closed its doors last week.
"There is no jazz club in Warsaw now," said Mariusz Adamiak, the club's manager. "Akwarium was unique and nobody will be able to replace us."
The club was set up in 1977 by the Polish Jazz Association (PSJ), which actively promoted Poland's then-vibrant jazz scene. Adamiak began managing the club on behalf of PSJ in 1988, but severed his and the club's relationship with the association at the beginning of the 1990s due to conflicts. He continued running Akwarium on his own.
"The last concert here was on Monday, April 24," Adamiak said. "Some friends of ours dropped by and musicians played until 5 a.m."
The club had to vacate its premises by last Thursday. Adamiak's Radio Jazz also operated out of the building, so its furniture and equipment had to be moved to the station's new location in the Palace of the Culture and Science.
After the move, the club looked like a battlefield. The sight couldn't have been pleasant for Adamiak. "The club was 20 years of hard work," he said. "And it was a unique place on the world's scale."
This unique place ran into trouble years ago, when the city called a tender for the development of the land on which Akwarium was located. The tender was won by the Sienna Consulting Group, which promised Akwarium financial compensation, a place in a new building at an undisclosed site, and a temporary location during construction.
But just as Adamiak came to an agreement with the investor, a new problem appeared.
"City deputies stated that the club belongs to the city," Adamiak said. "So now the city will get the money and we have to leave the building."
The city did offer the club a new location: in the cafeteria of the Riviera Building, which houses one of Warsaw Politechnical University's dormitories. Adamiak didn't think this was such a good deal. "It was in ruins, though the city thought it was very generous offer," Adamiak said. "Experts said the cost of renovation would be about $850,000, so we decided that this offer is not attractive for us for financial reasons."
Adamiak also said the city thinks the club is being too finicky in its choice of space, though he doesn't see it that way considering the city only offered one unacceptable location.
"In that situation we decided the only thing we can do is leave this place (on Emilii Plater) and set up on the pavement," Adamiak said. "Maybe that will move somebody." Adamiak said he has asked Warsaw Mayor Pawel Piskorski and the prime minister's chancellery for help.
The club has its supporters and its enemies. Marek Karewicz, a Polish jazz photographer and PSJ member, still remembers the conflict between the association and Adamiak. "I stopped coming (to Akwarium) when Adamiak blacklisted people from the club," Karewicz said. "I was one of them."
Tadeusz Majewski, a Karewicz friend and jazz expert, was more nostalgic. "I will miss this place," he said. "I liked its atmosphere and now there won't be any place to go and listen to jazz."
Beata Adamiak, Mariusz's wife, worked with her husband in Akwarium from the beginning. She was more optimistic about the future, partly because she was too busy closing down the club to worry. "I have so much to do that I don't know what to start with," she said. "I hope that we'll reopen our club very soon. I haven't even considered a different option."
Mrs. Adamiak was right to stay calm. On Friday, Dzielnica Srodmiescie, the district administration, declared that the $475,000 the city is expected to get from Sienna will be used for Akwarium's rebirth elsewhere.
