TOMASZ STANKO
Suspended Night
ECM
Records
Read
the Jazzitude review of Tomasz Stanko/Lontano
Read
the Jazzitude review of Tomasz Stanko/:rarum XVII: Selected
Works
Read
the Jazzitude review of Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz, Miskiewicz/Trio
Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has earned
a well-deserved reputation as one of the best European jazz
trumpet players around. Now that reputation is growing to
the point where the word “European” will need
to be eliminated. Working with a quartet made up of young,
accomplished Polish players, Stanko has produced two recordings—The
Soul of Things and the brand new Suspended Night—that
are as defining and innovative as was the Miles Davis Quintet
comprised of Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony
Williams, and Ron Carter.
The opening cut, “Song For Sarah”
is a hugely warm slab of romanticism that is a showcase
for both Stanko’s haunting, restrained trumpet sound
and pianist Marcin Wasilewski’s balmy piano work,
a potent combination of Bill Evans-esque romantic impressionism
and classical technique. The piece is something of a prelude
for what’s to come, but it also provides a moment
of unabashed beauty untempered by tension that will not
be present in the “Suspended Night” variations
that follow. There, the gorgeousness is always a bit bluer,
more melancholy, as it is on the very first variation. Drummer
Michal Miskiewicz keeps the interest level high with a constant
ruffle of rhythm that never settles anywhere until near
the three-minute mark when the piece segues into a swinging
piece that could be a long lost outtake from Kind of
Blue.
The second Variation sets up a fast rhumba-style
rhythm that changes feel again after a minute and a half
into a swinging section that sounds like something from
an early Herbie Hancock Blue Note before it locks abruptly
back into rhumba step. The piece is an amazing display by
a band that is clearly gelling in amazing ways. The comparisons
to Davis’ quintet are not meant to be either hyperbolic
or to imply that Stanko and company are revisiting ground
trod long ago. It is much more the spirit of the Davis group
that is replicated by Stanko’s band, a sense that
these guys eat, breathe, and sleep jazz 24/7 when they are
in recording or performance mode. In addition, Stanko, like
Davis, is clearly the elder in his band (he is around 60,
his bandmates in their mid-thirties), yet draws inspiration
from younger musicians even as he, in turn, inspires them.
Stanko and his group pull out all the stops
on this CD, performing a wide variety of styles including
the extreme downtempo of Variations IV, the Monkish post-bop
of Variation V, the lush balladry of Variations III and
VI, the somewhat free improvisation of Variation VII. Pianist
Wasilewski occasionally employs unusual aspects of his instrument,
such as plucking the strings and tapping the piano’s
sides. What’s really important about this album is
that it demands repeated listening. It is a richly textured
tapestry that will always yield new insights and expose
new colors and patterns. That seems as good a definition
of the word “classic” as any.
