The innovative Polish trumpeter (born in Rzeszów in 1942) first came to international attention in the early 1960s as a member of Krzysztof Komeda’s group, which pioneered its own approach to free playing, both in the jazz clubs and in the leader’s music for films, including soundtracks of the early movies of Roman Polanski. Stanko would later reflect on this creative formative period on his album Litania.
Tomasz Stanko’s ECM debut was Balladyna with Tomasz Szukalski on tenor sax, Dave Holland on bass and Edward Vesala on drums. Released in 1976, it counts today as a classic of European jazz.
Like his early hero Miles Davis, Stanko was a discerning bandleader and each of his groups had its own distinct character. Matka Joanna and Leosia, with Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin and Tony Oxley balanced lyricism and turbulent free play.
The band on From The Green Hill – with its unusual frontline featuring Stanko, John Surman, Dino Saluzzi and classical violinist Michelle Makarski - grew out of an experimental session at an ECM festival in Badenweiler.
Soul of Things introduced the world at large to the talents of Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz, and on Suspended Night and Lontano, one could hear their improvisational capacities opening up under Stanko’s guidance.
Dark Eyes pooled the talents of young improvisers from the North, with two Danes (Jakob Bro and Anders Christensen) and two Finns (Alexi Tuomarila and Olavi Louhivuori) in a programme referencing music originally written to accompany plays of Swedish writer Lars Norén, as well as a title track inspired by an Oskar Kokoschka painting. “Everything you experience gets into the music,” Tomasz said.
By the early 2000s, Stanko was splitting his time between New York and Warsaw, subsequently founding a New York Quartet, notably free of native New Yorkers, for the album Wisława with Cuban born pianist David Virelles, Detroit drummer Gerald Cleaver, and Californian bassist Thomas Morgan, replaced on December Avenue by Reuben Rogers from the Virgin Islands.
In all of his groups Tomasz encouraged freedom of expression and derived great pleasure from the creative contributions of his musicians. He died in Warsaw in July 2018.
