Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Isn't this what jazz is all about?, March 5, 2005
Out of left field. Check. Three Poles, who form the backup group to trumpet genius, Thomasz Stanko. But who would've predicted that they'd move the music beyond their boss and master? (Well, setting modesty aside, I did say, in my review of Stanko's Suspended Night, "As impressive as Stanko is here . . . the real heroes are his Polish [backup group].")
Weird intersection of ravishing beauty and hardcore rigor. Check. These guys, although they can and do hang with the most gorgeous of the recent ECM trio outings, e.g., the Tord Gustavson Trio, Anderson/Tsabropoulos/Marshall, and Taylor/Johnson/Baron, also have a similarly rigorous, deeply delved jazz sensibility. Where they got it from, who knows. Endlessly listening to Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett sides clandestinely available in Poland? Tuning in to Radio Free America jazz broadcasts? Encountering likeminded musicians as they toured the Free World with their trumpet master? Somehow connecting with, absorbing, and transmuting Ryuichi Sakamoto's unique musical vision? It matters little. The important thing is, they've got it.
Absolute assurance in the conceptualization and execution of their unique musical vision. Check. This is jazz that I've never heard before, but, paradoxically, have heard my entire adult life. Shades of past and present masters (Evans, Jarrett, Werner, Lafaro, Baron, Haden, Motian, Erskine, Higgins), dancing, lilting, singing, swinging in their own glorious idiom, resonating with jazz icons of the first water, but somehow uniquely showing forth their own hard-won musical insights.
Music that's just too beautiful, but that you don't want to quit listening to (unlike saccharine sweet jazz lite, that initially beguiles but soon wears out its welcome). Check. I, literally, can't get this stinkin' disc off my player. It keeps working its way back in, no matter how hard I try to listen to other stuff.
Music that continually surprises, even as it becomes more and more listener-friendly. Check. Each time I hear this astounding disc, I get something new out of it. But, weirdly, not as some kind of jazz LESSON; just as the consequence of listening with ears open and encountering music of great generosity clothed in almost simplistic garb. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis: The door to jazz is low, and you must stoop to enter. And its foremost practitioners have mastered the off-hand grandeur that characterizes this music at its, paradoxically, most exalted and most humble moments.
Seldom does any disc, no matter from what genre or idiom, rise to the heights this music naturally walks in and among. One thinks of Omar Sosa at the summit of his ecstatic expression (Mulatos and Pictures of Soul), or, perhaps, of Peter Epstein's magical The Invisible or Nascer, or the Egberto Gismonti of Magico or Sanfona, or Safa. And few others. For me to include this altogether marvelous music among these masters means I have placed it in some kind of veritable musical Pantheon.
And I have.
So if you don't pick up on it, don't blame me. I gave you fair warning.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
solid as nails, April 8, 2005
This was an impulse buy for me, as I was looking for something new in the ECM canon, i.e., some late-night or "3 a.m." jazz. It's easy to say after having this album for a few months that I got exactly what I was looking for.
The influences are generally agreed upon by the other reviewers listed here: Bill Evans, perhaps the quieter side of Keith Jarrett, but this is certainly something different. This younger trio does have their own language and brand of telepathy, so it is not a ripoff of things done better by other artists. This is a piano trio with their own sound that can be recognized and not confused with other groups/performers.
Wasilewski's sound is pretty impressive. I like his phrasing and sensitivity; he's not trying to get too far outside and is more concerned with getting to the heart of the matter, but when he does take chances he never falters. Occasionally you'll have to contend with his vocalise, but that's something that has never bothered me (not even with Jarrett, ha!).
The original compositions contain chord changes that are more on the diatonic or modal side, often closing with vamps, and none of the songs seem to be vehicles for how clever or virtuosic the trio can be; they are more interested in creating a contemplative mood than blowing their stacks. Other songs seem to have been improvised on the spot, and their titles will tell you which ones they are.
I like "Free-Bop" a lot; a little free jazz head that I keep whistling, and a nice springboard for some free improv from the group.
This is a solid effort and I can't find anything at all wrong with it. It's the kind of album you keep coming back to. It does what it sets out to do very nicely, indeed.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Relaxin' at Krakow, March 27, 2005
I am always listening to a lot of new music. And when there's a new ECM release I usually grab it immediately. That was the case with Trio. And I am glad. Here we have wonderful, inventive, relaxed trio playing by three very talented players. Young, creative guys I have seen at Blues Alley here in D.C. accompanying Tomasz Stanko. I think I may prefer the Trio to the Stanko group as I find Stanko's searing, sarchastic tone (reminding me of Prokofiev & Shostakovich) can wear me down a bit. Listening to Trio these past couple of weeks I have been reminded of an old-ish favorite of mine, Lyle Mays's Fictionary, with all its Bill Evans-isms. This is not a bad thing. Trio is a really rewarding new release. I will look forward to hearing more from these guys.
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