Kazimierz Jonkisz

Kazimierz Jonkisz (born 1948, Wilamowice) is a Polish jazz drummer.

Kazimierz Jonkisz in 2007

Jonkisz's musical education started at the age of 10 with accordion lessons at a local high school. Later on, at the Bielsko-Biała Music high school, he switched to drums. He appeared at the "Jazz by the Odra '67" Festival at the age of 18, winning it as a soloist. In 1971 he graduated from the Academy of Music in Katowice receiving the Krzysztof Komeda award.

During a benefit concert for Tomasz Szukalski in November 2010 in Warszawa

He has worked and recorded with top Polish jazz musicians, such as: Tomasz Stańko, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Adam Makowicz, J. P. Wroblewski, Michał Urbaniak and Mieczyslaw Kosz. He has also played with international jazz stars like : Al Cohn, Roy Hargrove, Larry Coryell, Amina Claudine Myers, Monty Waters, Eddie Henderson, Kevin Mahogany, Marc Thomas, Miles Griffith, John Hicks, Bob Sheppard, Lary Goldings, Tim Hagans.

Since 1978, he has led his own groups in which many Polish jazz musicians made their professional debut. He has recorded over 70 records, some of them as a leader (the first one "Tiri Taka", was made in 1980). He played at festivals in Poland and Europe, such as: Jazz Jamboree, Molde Jazz Festival, Bergamo, Ost West - Germany, Havana Jazz, New Port in Belgrade, Temecula International Jazz Festival (USA), and many others. For 15 years he has taught drums at the jazz department of the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. Along with teachers from Berklee College of Music and Musik Hoch Schule from Graz, he regularly teaches drums at the summer jazz workshop in Puławy, in Poland.