"No dictatorship can tolerate jazz - it just seems to represent freedom"
Dave Brubeck
Brubeck became the first American jazz musician to perform behind the Iron Curtain when he toured Poland in 1958. Jazz had been popular and tolerated in both Poland and Russia at various times before the war but it was despised by Stalin, a prejudice enforced by the Polish communist government too. So after the war, Jazz could only be played in private houses during what became known as the “catacomb period” (another bone reference ironically).
By 1958, with Stalin dead five years, the climate had changed - Poland in particular opened up to Western musical influences and was developing its own respected Jazz scene.