Tomasz Stanko Quartet - Lontano

[Ed S]

Hmmmm................. Buffalo.......................

Back under deep cover.

[clifford_thornton]

Is it really spamming? I just see it as an album review. And he's not exactly praising the new Stanko album either....sounds like a 5 out of 10 review to me.

Sal, I listened to it again today, and the more I hear it the more I like it. But I don't take back anything I said in my original post. Seventy-seven minutes is a long time for nine songs that sound the same, even if they are very good.

Wonder if the "mood thing" relates back to his work with Komeda and film music, or not... I like the Stanko I've heard, but not heard this one. Balladina, his first on ECM, is very good. I'd also like to check out a few of those early Musa/Poljazz things, like Twet.

Edited August 22, 2006 by clifford_thornton

[Niko]

I'd also like to check out a few of those early Musa/Poljazz things, like Twet.

thank you for reminding me of twet, bought it years ago in poland on cassette (which is essentially why i forgot about it)... thought i didn't have any Stanko but IIRC i really like twet

[GA Russell]

Just a heads up that this comes out tomorrow.

Those of you fans of Stanko who decide to pick this up...I hope that you will report back as to how this compares with the albums of his that you like - better, worse or average.

I've pretty much made up my mind that there are songs here I would give five stars to, but I can't give the album more than four stars because of the lack of diversity among the songs.

[etherbored]

picked this up today and am on my second listen. excellent disc and slightly more adventurous than his previous recordings with this particular trio. if you're looking for wide variation, you may come up frustrated.

remember, stanko was a darling of the burgeoning european avant-garde scene of the mid to late 60's onward, along with his good friend krzysztof komeda, whom he recorded at least seven sides with. so in some ways, maybe he's been there and done that. therefore as a listener, i've never approached his work with skepticism.

anyhow, i'm *really* enjoying 'lotano'.

check out the discography at his site and you'll find work with more edge. i think it's very well designed...

www . tomasz stanko . com.

-e-

ps: be sure to check the discography carefully as there are compositions from his earlier records you can listen to that show his prowess for the outside.

Edited August 30, 2006 by etherbored

[GA Russell]

I listened to this again today, and I was struck by the influence of the Paul Bley trio circa 1967, both on the piano playing of Marcin Wasilewski and the drumming of Michal Miskiewicz.

[etherbored]

those two are absolute killers. killers! i could listen to them play for days...

-e-

[king ubu]

I should be able to catch Stanko and the guys again in about two weeks! :-)

[GA Russell]

I dug out the two LPs I had in mind when I made my comment about Paul Bley, and I see that they were recorded in 1965 and 1966.

The drummer on both was Barry Altschul.

[tonym]

Someone, here I believe, posted that the ECM sound has wooden drumsticks on cymbals sounding like knitting needles. I think that's a great description, and I think I would prefer that sound for this album. Different strokes!

Was that referring to DeJohnette's cymbal sound on Universal Syncopations?

As someone said above the last two Stanko discs were incredibly warm to my ears; Soul Of Things especially. Beautiful.

I'm excited about this new release and if I had the chance I'd see them again (saw them in a small, 'proper' jazz club when Suspended Night came out). They are a truly wonderful band.

[Late]

Listening to Lontano right now. Superbly recorded — in France this time, rather than Norway — with very fine playing. For me, the pianist Marcin Wasilewski is the centerpiece of this band. Stanko's playing is very atmospheric, but without Wasilewski behind him, the record wouldn't be the same. Wasilewski is a pianist to look out for in the future.

I wish this group were making it up to Oregon. They did for the tour for Suspended Night, and they were great then.

[Late]

Marcin Wasilewski

Hard to pin his style down (from an American perspective, at least) — somewhat like Marilyn Crispell with touches of Paul Bley?

[jeffsjazz]

I agree with other's comments.I listened to "Lontano" late last night on headphones.It is very well recorded (nothing new for ECM),a tad less resonant than usual.The pianist is definitely one to watch for.Their trio cd is wonderful,very atmospheric-late night sounds,but veeery nice.Kudos for Tomas for snagging this trio.

Jeffsjazz

[king ubu]

Saw them last night... didn't enjoy it as much as the last two times I saw them. The trio is terrific, their interplay, their power, their groove - they can build up an almost unbelievable pressure!

Stanko himself was pretty weak, though... maybe it's me that has changed and not him, but somehow it seemed like he went on playing the same solo again and again, always doing the high screeching 70s Miles stuff. Sure, he always was a limited technician and not the most subtle soloist, but I found him pretty boring. His sound would be so beautiful in the lower and mid register, but he always went back to the fumbling high screeching nonsense stuff.

Anyway, if you can catch the band, I still recommend going, if only for Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz! The later's sound on bass is terrific, so natural and wooden (woody?). Wasilewksi is great, too, almost flying while playing, it seems... Miskiewicz played an ugly-sounding drum set (mainly the cymbals were crap - even worse that I saw Jonathan Blake two days prior, playing a beautifully tuned drumset and being much more a master than Miskiewicz, anyway).

[GA Russell]

The Amerian tour starts tomorrow.

If anyone gets to see the band, I hope he will report in and tell us what he thinks, and if his experience was the same or different from that of King Ubu.

[DTMX]

I saw Tomasz Stanko a couple of nights ago in Ann Arbor - on a double bill with Tim Berne's Paraphrase. I had never heard Stanko's music before but everyone seemed to be pretty excited about his appearance, so what the hell, I got excited too.

This was part of the Edgefest series and Stanko played a much edgier set that he usually does. A guy in the Ann Arbor audience traveled to Toledo the previous night to see Stanko, and he said that the two sets were different, in that the Toledo set was more mannered and the Edgefest set was more raw. The previous night I had seen Myra Melford with Mark Dresser and Matt Wilson and she was (literally) hammering the keyboard and I thought that was going to be the most aggressive piano playing of the festival but Marcin Wasilewski topped everyone that week (Melford, Taborn, Lars Hollmer, and some professor from the school up the street). I bought Lontano in a fit of impulse buying at the show (one of many fits), but haven't listened to it yet. It was a good show, but I remember more about Wasilewski than the leader. Still worth every penny (all 2000 of them).

[sheldonm]

The Amerian tour starts tomorrow.

If anyone gets to see the band, I hope he will report in and tell us what he thinks, and if his experience was the same or different from that of King Ubu.

I'll see him in Chicago this coming Wednesday night with Sal.....never seen Stanko before, looking forward to it.

Mark~

[king ubu]

... but I remember more about Wasilewski than the leader...

Same here... from a bit of a distance, I think the show I saw wasn't all that bad (had the wrong colleagues with me, who just didn't dig it at all, and that may have put me down a bit). But I, too, found Wasilewski *very* impressive.

While I don't have "Lontano", don't expect it to be as "raw" and "lively" as the live gig. It won't be close to... same applies to "The Trio" disc on ECM (by the trio, without Stanko) - it's all pretty much ECM stuff, if you like that you'll like the discs, but it's *very* much different from the live experience, and it definitely can't beat the live experience, in my opinion.

[P.L.M]

My best remembrance of STANKO was a duo that he plays with BOBO STENSON, some years ago in a festival.

Far from the ECMish sound, partly improvised, it was delightfull: two masters at work.

I had the first record of the "polish" quartet but I didn't keep it for very long: this kind of "chamber music" style doesn't stand the test of time (IMO). Even a very short time.

But I can imagine that the quartet is better live than on record where the sound is not so restrain to a preconceive esthetic.

[sheldonm]

The Amerian tour starts tomorrow.

If anyone gets to see the band, I hope he will report in and tell us what he thinks, and if his experience was the same or different from that of King Ubu.

I'll see him in Chicago this coming Wednesday night with Sal.....never seen Stanko before, looking forward to it.

Mark~

Mark, I caught them last week at Yoshi's (Oakland, CA) and they were great, more developed as a group than when I heard them four years ago in Santa Cruz (and they were hot then)!

Thanks David, can't wait to see them.....I'll post some photographs as time permits! I'm a little behind on my picture-posting these days!!!

m~

[etherbored]

I had the first record of the "polish" quartet but I didn't keep it for very long: this kind of "chamber music" style doesn't stand the test of time (IMO). Even a very short time.

wow.

not to focus on the negative, but i couldn't disagree more with you if i tried.

i have a collection full of ECM titles whose material has only grown in richness over the years.

it all depends on your tastes, which is why you added "IMO"...

however, on the other hand, if i listen to an prototypical ECM date when i'm not in the mood, it can have what might be the same effect.

-e-

[sal]

The quartet absolutely killed it tonight in Chicago! One of the finest, most refreshing jazz shows I've seen in a while. Get out and see them if you get the chance!

[Patrick]

Looking forward to seeing them Monday night at Blues Alley in DC.

Sal, did you see them last year (supporting Suspended Night)? If yes, any comparison to last night?

[sal]

Looking forward to seeing them Monday night at Blues Alley in DC.

Sal, did you see them last year (supporting Suspended Night)? If yes, any comparison to last night?

Patrick, I did not. Last night was my first time seeing them, and I certainly hope its not the last.

[GA Russell]

Doug Ramsey discusses jazz under communist rule in his Rifftides blog dated tomorrow. He mentions Stanko thus:

...I thought of the Skvorecky and Tyrmand stories when I read Nate Chinen's New York Times article about Tomasz Stanko, the Polish trumpeter who was captured--and freed--by jazz when he first heard it half a century ago.

"The message was freedom," he said one afternoon last week in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room. "For me, as a Polish who was living in Communist country," he continued in his slightly broken English, "jazz was synonym of Western culture, of freedom, of this different style of life."

To read the entire interview, go here. Stanko's new recording is Lontano (ECM). He is one of dozens of Eastern European musicians who, since the collapse of Communism, have joined the top ranks of jazz musicians in the world. He, George Mraz, Emil Viklický, Robert Balzar, František Uhlíř, Adam Makowicz, the late Aladar Pege, Laco Tropp and many others kept the music alive underground during years of subjugation and proved that in art, talent and the human spirit trump race and nationality.