Edward Mąkosza (born on 13 November 1886 in Lisków, died on 25 April 1973 in Częstochowa) was a Polish composer, pedagogue, conductor, organist, and ethnomusicologist. He was the main organiser of musical life in Częstochowa. He wrote approximately a thousand compositions. He received numerous accolades and was hailed as a hero of the Jasna Góra Monastery.

The paper presents Edward Mąkosza’s biography and is meant to serve as an intro­duction to a comprehensive study of his work. The successive periods of his life (childhood, youth, professional work until and after World War Two have been discussed. Subsequently I focus on the composer’s broadly understood professional activity:his teaching, artistic and community work. I thus attempt to present the professor’s entire biography.

The following article presents the history of Japanese jazz, from the first musical contacts to its contemporary successes and problems of the jazz music market. An important role in the development and evolution of jazz in Japan (even before the post-war US occupation of that country) was played by the presence of American military forces in the Philippines, which, as an American-dependent territory, maintained cultural contacts with the United States, where jazz had been born at the beginning of the 20^th century and became one of the most popular forms of music. Apart from contact with Filipino musicians, who were the first source of jazz education for the Japanese, the rise of jazz cafés (jazzu-kissa) was also important for the development of jazz in the Land of the Cherry Blossom. The cafés played a huge role in generating interest in jazz and shaping musical tastes. The article also shows the influence of jazz on the formation of a modern, American-type lifestyle among the Japanese middle-class. In addition, the article discusses the complex issue of the authenticity of Japanese jazz in relation to American jazz and the role of world-famous Japanese musicians, such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, in overcoming stereotypes. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the universality and at the same time the local character of contemporary Japanese jazz as well as the distinguishing features of jazz in Japan.