Music halls and cinemas across Poland are paying tribute this week to Krzysztof Komeda, the jazz sensation who's life was cut tragically short at the age of thirty-seven.

Komeda, born 80 years ago today, is best known for writing the scores to such cult films as Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby – both directed his friend Roman Polanski – as well as Andrzej Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers.

Hailing from the western city of Poznan, Komeda (born Trzcinski) trained to be a laryngologist, but his student days also sparked a love affair with jazz.

The early fifties were amongst the most repressive in communist Poland, and under the pseudonym of Komeda, the young musician took to playing clandestine jazz gigs at friends flats in Krakow.

“It was not only a window onto a completely different world but a form of protest, for American jazz was officially decried as a product of 'putrid imperialism',” remembers Roman Polanski in his autobiography.

In 1956, with the thaw that followed Stalin's death, jazz exploded into the mainstream, and Komeda became an overnight sensation, thanks to the first Polish Jazz Festival in Sopot in the Baltic coast. The Komeda Sextet stole the show.

Komeda soon resigned his job as a laryngologist, and commissions began to flow in for film work, with jazz the sound of the moment.

The Polish star left for the States in 1968, where he wrote the soundtrack to Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, a triumphant success.

However, in December 1968, a drunken night out with wild man writer Marek Hlasko resulted in a brain haemorrhage for the composer. Komeda was flown back to Poland, but he failed to recover, and died soon afterwards.

Komeda is now regarded as one of the most innovative jazz composers of his day. (nh)