Tomasz Stańko - Suspended Night

Tomasz Stańko - Suspended Night

It's entirely marvelous--and almost always unexpected--to encounter a first-class jazz performer moving from a position of prominence to one of absolute top rank. Without a doubt, that is what trumpeter Thomasz Stanko has accomplished on his latest release from ECM. Here he plays with a confidence and presence often glimpsed in his previous recordings but come fully to the fore on this transcendent disc.

As impressive as Stanko is (and he's mighty impressive!), the real heroes here are, perhaps, his Polish quintet. Especially standout are Marcin Wasilewski on piano and Slawomir Kurkiewicz on bass. Not far behind is Michal Miskiewicz on drums. These players consistently set the table for the exact right moods and atmospheres for Stanko, be it elegy ("Song for Sarah"), acquiescence ("Suspended Variation I"), friskiness ("Suspended Variation II," a spirited tango), romance ("Suspended Variation III," a gorgeous ballad), hope ("Suspended Variation IV," another gorgeous ballad), joi de vivre ("Suspended Variation V," the closest thing these guys come to an up-tempo number), mystery ("Suspended Variation VI," a meditation of the vagaries and vicissitudes of life), and so on. This proves, as much as any recent recording, the magic that comes from playing with a working jazz band

Once again, as we have come to expect from engineer Jon Erik Konshaug and producer Manfred Eicher, the sound is ravishingly beautiful--with exquisite detail, presence, and warmth. ECM at the absolute top of its game. Hard to beat.

Surely one of the most purely stunningly beautiful jazz discs ever recorded, Suspended Night instantly vaults trumpeter Stanko to the very front ranks of trumpeters in the history of jazz.

Tracklist

1. Song for Sarah [05:30]
2. Suspended Variations I [08:52]
3. Suspended Variations II [08:24]
4. Suspended Variations III [07:13]
5. Suspended Variations IV [07:04]
6. Suspended Variations V [04:20]
7. Suspended Variations VI [08:54]
8. Suspended Variations VII [03:25]
9. Suspended Variations VIII [04:21]
10. Suspended Variations IX [05:52]
11. Suspended Variations X [04:47]

Personnel:
Sławomir Kurkiewicz - double bass
Marcin Wasilewski - piano
Tomasz Stańko - trumpet
Michał Miśkiewicz - drums

Tomasz Stańko - Music For K

Back in 1970, when this disc was recorded, Tomasz Stanko, by now an internationally established and admired jazz personality, was already known as one of the very few convincing free-jazzmen. In his bold endeavours he was lucky to enjoy some understanding and sensitive partners. Earlier, in the sixties Stanko's experiences were both as a sideman and a leader. He cooperated with such greats as Krzysztof Komeda, Wlodzimierz Nahorny, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Andrzej Trzaskowski, Don Cherry and Albert Mangelsdorff, but his favourite partners were Janusz Muniak, Janusz Stefanski, Zbig Seifert and - a bit later - Bronislaw Suchanek. Tomasz Stanko Quintet flourished without personal changes for five years (1969-1973), scoring a big success during 1970 Jazz Jamboree.

Around that time, a year after untimely death of Krzysztof Komeda (1939-1969), the quintet recorded four pieces by Stanko, naming the LP after the main composition: Music for K", thus paying homage to the memory of deceased friend and expressing his emotional attitude toward his premature death. However, Stanko didn't attempt to relate here to Komeda's sound or style
and remains very much himself presenting his peculiar, personal way of shaping music, remote, on the surface only, from the structural clarity. His predilection toward spontaneous development of music, based on very few indispensable determinants, surprisingly dovetails here with the emotional content of such deeply felt numbers like "Cry" and "Music for K". It seems obvious that Stanko's free stems rather from Coltrane's last work and his shades of expression are rich and many.