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RADIO September 3, 2020

Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano and Thumbscrew interpret Braxton

This week we feature the beautiful new album from the Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano, cutting edge improvisation with Cooper-Moore & Stephen Gauci and No Horns, Thumbscrew interpreting the compositions of Anthony Braxton, and, new sounds from Anteloper and Michael Sarian. Also further investigation of the back catalogue of Felice Clemente, something old and something new from Michael Formanek, and a closer from Louis Sclavis, Craig Taborn and Tom Rainey. Playlist Marcin Wasilewski Trio with Joe Lovano ...

ALBUM REVIEW June 28, 2020

Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

By Thomas Fletcher

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio are amongst the most evident and high-profile jazz musicians that roam the Polish scene. Celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary playing together only last year, the ensemble is widely renowned for challenging the piano trio and broadening its sound. Having collaborated with luminary wind players such as Jan Garbarek, Arthur Blythe and John Surman, the trio have now set their aspirations on performing with fellow ECM giant, Joe Lovano. Lovano made his debut with the record label back ...

ALBUM REVIEW June 22, 2020

Marcin Wasilewski Trio & Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

By Mike Jurkovic

Like standing before a frozen lake as it becomes a palette for the morning sun, “Glimmer of Hope" ripens swiftly, deftly into an illuminating, direly-needed respite from the mourning that has besieged listeners. Ecstatically, it is just the preface to Arctic Riff's expansive beauty. As if conjured from mist, pianist Marcin Wasilewski's contented, yet curious rubato, ellipses through a few random tonalities, its sole purpose being to create an active space for his long trusted rhythm section--bassist Slawomir ...

ALBUM REVIEW June 15, 2020

Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Joe Lovano: Arctic Riff

By Karl Ackermann

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio has been reliably consistent in their twenty-five years together. Still in their teens when they recorded their debut, Komeda (GOWI Records, 1995), the Polish trio—then known as The Simple Acoustic Trio—came to the attention of their country's iconic trumpeter Tomasz Stanko who signed them on to complete his quartet. They appeared together on three of Stanko's most successful ECM releases: Soul of Things (2001), Suspended Night (2003), and Lontano (2005). As a trio (under both names) ...

LIVE REVIEW June 24, 2019

Marcin Wasilewski Trio at Triskel Christchurch

By Ian Patterson

Marcin Wasilewski Trio Triskel Christchurch Cork Midsummer Festival Cork, Ireland June 15, 2019 What a difference a few centuries can make. In 1649 English military leader Oliver Cromwell, in what was the least of his crimes, allegedly used Christchurch to stable his soldiers' horses. He is also said to have melted the church bells to make cannons, as trumpets and saxophones hadn't been invented at that stage. In the following centuries the building ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 25, 2018

Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Live

By Mike Jurkovic

Recorded by Flemish radio in Antwerp 2016 without the trio's knowledge, this accidental live disc not only delivers to followers of this long-lived Polish unit an essential live document, it washes over newcomers like a cresting baptismal wave that never stops cleansing the soul and senses.Nearing thirty years as a unit--they also served as the late trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's adventurous rhythm section from 2001-2006)--the ability of pianist Marcin Wasilewski, double bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz to ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 4, 2018

Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Live

By Karl Ackermann

It is timely, albeit in a melancholy way, that one-time Tomasz Stańko protégé Marcin Wasilewski and his trio would offer a retrospective live performance that closely coincides with the passing of the legendary Polish trumpeter. The pianist, still just in his early forties, first recorded with Stańko's octet while he was a teenager and quickly went on to release his first Simple Acoustic Trio album, Komeda (Not Two, 1995), at just twenty. From the outset bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer ...