A skillful combination of traditional and avant-garde jazz made TriCity's Milosc one of the most important yass scene collectives. The band formed from the ashes of the new wave group Sni Sredstwom Za Uklanianie, and consisted of double-bassist Ryszard Tymanski, saxophonist Mikolaj Trzaska, and clarinetist Jerzy Mazolewski, aka Mazzoll. In 1991 Mazzoll left the band and pianist Leszek Mozdzer joined the lineup. With the encouragement of success at Krakow's Jazz Juniors Festival in 1992, Milosc, with Jacek Olter on percussion and saxophonist Maciej Sikala, recorded their first self-titled album. In 1994 they produced a mix of avant-jazz and world music for their second release, Taniec Smoka. The same year Milosc's musicians, in cooperation with the preeminent avant-garde trumpeter Lester Bowie, issued the live album Not Two. In 1995, Milosc released the Krzysztof Komeda-linked Asthmatic long-play. In 1997, in cooperation with Tymanski's Tymon i Trupy band, they issued a motion picture soundtrack from Olaf Lubaszenko's #Sztos. Despite the collapse of the original Milosc lineup in the late '90s, Tymanski toured along with Olter, Trzaska (substituted in 2000 with Mazzoll), and Tomasz Hesse on bass. The second collaboration between Milosc and Lester Bowie was entitled Talkin' About Life and Death and was issued in 2000. Milosc disbanded in 2002 after the death of Jacek Olter by suicide. ~ Aleksander Stepien, Rovi