Polish saxophonist and composer Maciej Obara entered the international jazz scene in 2006. In 2008 he toured Poland with US saxophonist Antoine Roney and was also recommended by Manfred Eicher (ECM) to Tomasz Stanko, which resulted in their fruitful collaboration on projects such as Terminal 7 in the National Theatre, the Tomasz Stańko Special Project and the New Balladyna Quartet. 

In 2008 his Maciej Obara Trio released the critically acclaimed album I can do it, and while studying at the Brooklyn Academy of Music the following year, Maciej formed MaMuGe 3 and recorded Three with Harvey Sorgen (drums) and John Lindberg (vocals). During this time he also he invited US musicians Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Mark Helias (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) to join him in the Obara Special Quartet, resulting the album Four – a recording realised at Systemstwo in New York.

Upon his return to Poland, Obara formed a Obara International with pianist Dominik Wania – an ideal partner since the time they were playing together with Tomasz Stańko – creating an ambitious, mature project by adding two Norwegian musicians, Ole Morten Vagan (bass) and Gard Nilssen (drums), whom he got acquainted with as a participant of the project Take Five: Europe, a professional development scheme produced by Serious Ltd., the producers of the London Jazz Festival. Komeda, their tribute to the famous Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda, combining “unfettered power and graceful lyricism” (John Kelman, allaboutjazz.com), has been released in November 2012.

In 2014 Obara International tours as quintet with another former participant of the Take Five Europe project, Tom Arthurs on trumpet and flugelhorn. Winner of the Peter Whittingham Award in 2001, thrice-nominated in the BBC Jazz Awards (Best Instrumentalist and Rising Star), Tom has been featured extensively on BBC Radio 3, and has performed internationally with festival credits including Berlin, North Sea, Cheltenham, Moers, Bath, Jazzd'or, London, Manchester, Belfast and Jerusalem. Various one-off projects and collaborations have seen Tom perform with an incredible range of musicians including John Surman, John Taylor, Tom Rainey, Drew Gress, Ingrid Laubrock, Jack DeJohnette, Iain Ballamy, Thomas Strønen, Rudi Mahall, Julia Hülsmann, Nicolas Masson, John Schröder, Matthew Bourne, and Kenny Wheeler.