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Tomasz Stańko
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to join Krzystof Komeda's quintet the following year. Stanko has acknowledged that much of his subsequent musical direction and his own compositional style was influenced by Komeda. The lyricism, the feeling of playing only the essential, the approach to structure, to asymmetry, many harmonic details. Stanko toured for five years with Komeda, appeared on 11 albums with him, and also made contributions to all of the films scores that Komeda realized in Poland.
In 1970, Stanko joined Alex Schlippenbachi's Globe Unity Orchestra, which brought him into contact with all the key figures of the European jazz avant-garde, and also formed a quintet, with violinist Zbiegniew Seifert. The following year he collaborated with Krysztof Penderecki and Don Cherry. His most important work of the 1970s, however, may have been with Finnish drummer Edward Vesala. Their series of quartet albums, of which Balladyna was the first, set some new directions with explorations of the free ballad, graced by soulful, grainy trumpet, and Stanko also made important contributions to Vesalai's Together album, a massed gathering of Nordic/Baltic improvisers.
During the 1980s Stanko explored many approaches to improvisation. He travelled with Vesala to India and recorded trumpet solos in the Taj Mahal; again with Vesala, he hooked up with Chico Freeman and Howard Johnson in New York. He worked extensively with Cecil Taylor in large ensemble contexts, and led a number of groups of his own, such as COCX, which deployed post-Bitches Brew rock-rhythms, and Freelectronic, an ahead-of-its-time exploration of electro-acoustic options. Bluish, a trio recording with Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen preceded a return to ECM.
Since resuming his association with ECM with Matka Joanna in 1994 (his first album as a leader for the label in 20 years), Stanko has reached a new audience with his work. Two recordings with his international quartet with Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, and Tony Oxley, were followed by a highly successful tribute to film music composer and mentor Krzysztof Komeda in 1997. Stanko's Litania project became a popular fixture on the international festival circuit. In 1998, producer Manfred Eicher assembled a trans-idiomatic band around the trumpeter for From The Green Hill, a recording which pooled the talents of Dino Saluzzi, John Surman, Michelle Makarski, Anders Jormin and Jon Christensen. The Green Hill album won the coveted German Critics Prize (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis) as Album of the Year in 2000.
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Tomasz Stańko Quartet: September Night
by Alberto Bazzurro
Una musica sospesa, carica di pathos, magari sempre un po' uguale a se stessa (all'interno di questo album, che viene da lontano, essendo stato inciso addirittura nel 2004, ma più in generale nell'ultima produzione di Tomasz Stanko), ma in possesso di un potere seduttivo immutato, e peraltro con periodiche impennate (per esempio in Euforila," ma anche in Elegant Piece," e sono questi i momenti in cui si avvertono le maggiori similitudini con Enrico Rava, in certe strappate repentine, certi squarci ...
Continue ReadingTomasz Stanko, Tomasz Dabrowski and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre
by Maurice Hogue
Two never-heard-before albums are featured in this edition of OMJ. The first is from a saxophonist many considered overlooked for the list of great saxophonists: Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre whom Anthony Braxton considered the next great saxophonist after Coltrane. The album features Kalaparusha and quartet playing a set at Studio Rivbea in New York during the Loft Scene in July 1975. The second new recording happened 29 years later in Munich in 2004. The brilliant trumpet player and innovator, Tomasz Stanko, ...
Continue ReadingStańko, Waits, Rudolph, Sorey & More
by Bob Osborne
Previously unreleased live music from Tomasz Stańko kicks off a show comprised of all new releases. The expansive world of Nasheet Waits and the percussive adventures of Adam Rudolph & Tyshawn Sorey are also included. I'm also pleased to feature the first release from brand new label Park West Records and amongst other things a fascinating approach to the music of Thelonious Monk. Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Tomasz Stańko Elegant Piece" from September Night (ECM) 00:28 Bruna Black ...
Continue ReadingTomasz Stanko Quartet: September Night
by Chris May
How sorely Tomasz Stańko is missed. When he passed in 2018, his career had spanned practically the entire lifetime of homegrown Polish jazz, kicking off approximately with the Dave Brubeck Quartet's seminal tour of Poland in 1958, three years after the ban on jazz had been lifted by the country's ruling Communist Party. For Stańko, aged 16, Brubeck's tour was a Damascene moment, as it was for a whole generation of Polish musicians. Stanko was still resident in Poland when ...
Continue ReadingTomasz Stańko: September Night
by Mike Jurkovic
Once one finds oneself sucked into the fervent undertow piloting the live, previously unreleased September Night it is too late: The boat has left shore. Beginning with bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz's full throated rumble, Hermento's Mood" spins off into fable somewhere around the one minute forty mark, when pianist Marcin Wasilewski begins his warm, welcoming symmetries and the band gathers steam.. Polish trumpeter/composer Tomasz Stańko (1942-2018) was a poet on his golden instrument. Metaphoric but never academic, ...
Continue ReadingFrancois Carrier Ensemble featuring Mat Maneri /Tomasz Stańko / Gary Peacock / Michel Lambert: Openness
by Mark Corroto
Openness waited nearly two decades on a shelf (ok, probably on a hard drive) before being released for our listening pleasure. Recorded on May 5 & 6, 2006 at the Théâtre La Chapelle in Montréal, Canada, these three precious discs document a meeting between Canadian saxophonist François Carrier and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. It is the Polish label Fundacja Sluchaj to thank for this release and the prior disc Unwalled (2022), with Carrier being joined by Alexander von Schlippenbach, John ...
Continue ReadingDesperado: An Autobiography
by Andrew Hunter
Desperado: an Autobiography Tomasz Stanko 345 Pages ISBN: # 978 1 80050 222 2 Equinox Publishing Ltd2010 Tomasz Stanko; let us begin at the end. When Stanko died of lung cancer in 2018 aged 76, he left behind him a discography of forty records as a leader as well as numerous others as a sideman. He was a recording artist of international significance with an established position on the roster of ECM Records, ...
Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more.
Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more.
Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more.
Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today!
Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more.
Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today! Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more. Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more
Jazz Musician of the Day: Tomasz Stanko
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Tomasz Stanko's birthday today! Tomasz Stanko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz... Read more. Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website ...
read more