In 1958, he started working with the band the 'Jazz Believers' playing alto saxophone. The Jazz Believers consisted of the future top Polish jazz players, among them Andrzej Trzaskowski, Trafica Giant, Krzysztof Komeda (famed for writing music for Roman Polanski’s landmark film Rosemary's Baby), and Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski. It took a particular level of dedication to play jazz under the Soviet system of the 1950s. Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Poland's second highest civilian honor after the Order of the White Eagle.