Parallel to touring Scandinavia and West Europe with other jazz musicians, Szukalski performed in Poland with the Silesian rockband SBB.

The planned bookings for autumn 1981 joint performance of SBB and his own The Quartet at the Jazz Jamboree festival, due to the tense political situation in Poland, were not finalized.

They toured across Polish People's Republic and Czechoslovakia and performed the soundtrack for the science-fiction movie "The War of the Worlds: Next Century" (1981).

[8][9] During his stay in Vienna, following December 1981 Czechoslovakia tour (performing "Ambitus Extended" with Józef Skrzek), martial law was imposed and Szukalski returned home.

[10][11] To survive the martial law in Poland Szukalski re-joined the orchestra of Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski playing known American standards.

After 1990, Szukalski performed in various constellations, recorded as sideman and special guest, and started a long lasting cooperation with the young pianist Artur Dutkiewicz.

During the last decade of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century, Tomasz performed with Artur Dutkiewicz, Wojciech Karolak, Alain Brunet (the French jazz trumpeter and vice minister of culture),[14][15] Tadeusz Nalepa, Piotr Wojtasik, Wojciech Majewski, Tomasz Stańko, Palle Danielsson, Janusz Skowron, Karin Krog and Antti Hytti[16] and again as special guest of the reunited rockband SBB.

[17] At his hermitage cabin outside Warsaw Tomasz was visited by his friends and musicians inviting him to their recording sessions and performances, most often by the pianists Artur Dutkiewicz and Wojciech Majewski who always relied on "uncle Tom's" advice.

Szukalski lost his father's home (occupied by soviet invaders), divorced and spent nearly two decades in his primitive cabin outside Warsaw, where he lived permanently since 2003.

[18][19] The following musicians performed at the last benefit and some of them helped Tomasz find a place at an artists asylum in Skolimów outside Warsaw: After a couple of months spent at artists asylum, Szukalski died on August 2, 2012, at a hospital in Piaseczno, Poland[20] His funeral was held on August 8, 2012, at Bródno Cemetery, just one kilometre, less than a mile, from his family's stolen and occupied home.

Tomasz also picked up and educated young jazz talents, who otherwise wouldn't be noticed and often performed as special guest promoting their debut recordings.

Also aspiring singers like Anna Maria Jopek or Agnieszka Skrzypek alias Aga Zaryan profited from Tomasz's support and promotion, therefore in the Polish jazz community he was often called "uncle Tom".