Jazz Articles about Tomasz Stańko

Tomasz Stanko Quartet: Lontano

by Budd Kopman
September 4, 2006

Can a recording be appreciated or understood without knowing the full history of the performer?

The answer is, of course, yes and no. In this case, yes, the music on Lontano creates a coherent sound world, has an artistic point of view and many levels, and thus is well worth repeated listens. But no, you'll be missing the full impact of the music made by these musicians if you haven't heard the last two albums by this band, Soul Of ...

Tomasz Stanko Quartet: Lontano

by Chris May
September 3, 2006

The Beatles got it wrong. When you're 64, Lennon & McCartney predicted, you'll be ready for the knackers yard. But the lovable moptops were only in their twenties then, like Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, and each had already changed the shape of things, the Beatles with “She Loves You" (1963), Stanko on Astigmatic (1965). It was a young man's world.

But at the near-venerable age of 64, Stanko has recorded a major modern masterpiece: a perfect exploration of the hinterland ...

Tomasz Stanko Quartet: Lontano

by John Kelman
August 22, 2006

Other bands have been around for longer than Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko's current quartet, but few have exhibited such palpable growth in so little time. While Suspended Night (ECM, 2004) showed considerable development from the quartet's first release, Soul of Things (ECM, 2002), Lontano represents a major shift towards free playing that these albums only hinted at. More than half of Lontano consists of three extended improvisations. These truly spontaneous compositions demonstrate the extent to which this quartet ...

Manu Katche': Neighbourhood

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 30, 2006

Il primo disco a nome del batterista Manu Katche', noto in ambito pop per le sue collaborazioni con Peter Gabriel, Sting e Youssou n'Dour ed in quello jazz per i lavori con Jan Garbarek, arriva dopo molti anni di carriera, sotto l'egida della ECM e con le modalita' care a Manfred Eicher, che gli affianca, oltre il suo storico mentore Garbarek, altri alfieri dell'etichetta tedesca, vale a dire Tomasz Stanko e due dei componenti dell'attuale gruppo del trombettista polacco, il ...

Tomasz Stanko: Wolnosc w Sierpniu (Freedom in August)

by John Kelman
November 29, 2005

Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko has found increasing international exposure in recent years due to a string of fine ECM recordings, including Leosia (1997), Litania (1997) and Suspended Night (2004). But while his reappearance on the international scene is relatively recent, he has a perhaps not-so-surprisingly considerable discography released only in his native Poland, which ranges from Bosonossa (GOWI, 1993)--with his nascent quartet featuring Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin, and Tony Oxley--to works for theatre and film. Regardless of context, Stańko's distinctive raspy ...

Tomasz Stanko

by Budd Kopman
October 31, 2005

Trumpeter and composer Tomasz Stanko (b. 1942 Rzeszow, Poland) was present at the birth of modern European jazz. He's most closely associated with the man who was at the center of seemingly all art forms in Poland in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Krzysztof Komeda. Although his early work has been described, even by himself, as “free" or “avant-garde," one can always hear a melodic lyricism in Stanko's lines which softens the overall effect. An example of ...

Tomasz Stanko In Ann Arbor

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 13, 2004

One of Europe's most renowned individualists, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has experienced somewhat of a comeback since releasing his ECM album The Soul Of Things about two years ago. His first US tour in support of the disc brought rave reviews, both in terms of the further solidification of Stanko's unique style and for the discovery of the trumpeter's group of amazing youngsters who played with a fire and cohesion that could rival many a New York rhythm section. Not ...