Tomasz Stanko Quartet - Suspended Night

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I was working on some late night choreography during my first spin of this album, but what I did pay attention to, I liked a good deal. I think the only other disc I have with Stanko is Komeda's "Astigmatic," so this is almost my first exposure to him.

He's a fine trumpet player, but on this album the group sound is the primary focus. And it's a fine group, with sidemen whose names are not only new to me but unpronounceable by me. An especially engaging pianist, I thought. The album is more straight-ahead than I expected, for some reason, but one that could wear well with time.

I'll check in later with impressions after some more attentive listenings, but I'm curious as to what the rest of you think of this one. And -- those of you who know his music -- where does this fit into his body of work?

[mke]

I don't know his music too much, but I like this one a lot. The rhythm section is Polish, Stanko has been working with them for about 10 years, since they were teens. I found that at first it has a spare, open and romantic Miles 2nd Quintet kind of feel, but later on it grows a bit freer, but more in terms of dissonance and spareness than frenetic activity. In short, the title is extremely well chosen.

[Tom K]

I heard this band at a club date a few weeks ago - pure magic! And the CD is not half bad either.

[me wag]

The group he plays with is known as the Simple Acoustic Trio. They have a couple of CDs of playing the music of Komeda and one with their own compositions that I like a lot called Habanera. The Not Two label out of Poland has a lot of great stuff. I agree, Suspended Night is excellent. It has the same dark night music of the great Soul of Things but with a fresh approach, I think.

[alankin]

Very nice CD. The quartet will be touring in the US this month. I hope to see them in Philly on the 19th. Here's the schedule:

Tomasz Stanko Quartet


2004 Jun 09 Seattle, WA Triple Door USA
2004 Jun 10 Edmonton, Alberta Yardbird Suite Canada
2004 Jun 11 Portland, OR Blue Monk USA
2004 Jun 12 San Francisco, CA San Francisco JazzFestival - Florence Gould Theater USA
2004 Jun 13 La Jolla, CA Athenaeum Music & Arts Library USA
2004 Jun 14 Los Angeles, CA Jazz Bakery USA
2004 Jun 17 Ann Arbor, MI Firefly USA
2004 Jun 19 Philadelphia, PA Slought Foundation USA
2004 Jun 21 Washington DC Blues Alley USA
2004 Jun 22 Baltimore, MD An Die Musik USA
2004 Jun 23 New York, NY Merkin Hall - JVC Festival USA

[stonemonkts]

I'm loving this CD. I agree with Mke's comments completely. The CD conjures up Miles' music from that period, only more open and romantic. The pianist reminds me a little of Hancock too. This is definitely the most straight ahead recording by Stanko I've heard yet. Makes a nice addition to his already impressive output.

[Joe Milazzo]

Anyone here seen the film which served as inspiration for an earlier ECM date entitled MATKA JOANNA?

[MRS]

Yes: Matka Joanna od Aniołów

"Maht-kuh Yo-ah-nuh od Ahn-yo-wouf'

. . .very, very arcane wells are sprung. What I find most fascinating is the concluding (not really ruining anything here) conterminous religious approach to ridding the demons. By chance I acquired the Stanko date prior to my professor's screening of the film ca. '96 and she got a real kick out of it. In any event, this film drips with suggestion and a big-ass tenebrous cistern of implied ribaldry, do check it out. Think of the orgy in Rublyev.

[Joe Milazzo]

Is it readily available on video? Long been curious about it.

[MRS]

Me culpa, Pan Milazzo. . .I've no idea--seen it twice and both were VHS. I'll shoot some missives out and keep you posted.

EDIT: just found said professor's email so cross your fingers

[Joe Milazzo]

Schweet...

[john williams]

Suspended Night is one of my favorite recent purchases. Although I like Soul of Things, this one is much more enjoyable for me.

Leosia, Litania and From the Green Hill are also excellent IMO. I think I prefer these earlier records particularly Leosia with Stenson, Jormin and Oxley. FTGH has the brilliant Dino Saluzzi on Bandoneon and some great work from John Surman if you're a fan. Having said that TS's current band are terrific too.

Stanko is perhaps my favorite current ECM artist and I buy his CDs unheard without any doubt in my mind to the quality therein.

[al j]

Welp, I don't think ECM'll be sending Bagatellen any more cds to review. Dan Warburton's double review of the Stanko and Crispell's Storyteller is... ouch! Pretty harsh, but I agree mostly about both. They're tired. SOUL OF THINGS stands on its own as a beautiful "thing", but I was hoping that Stanko and the young Poles might go in a different direction for their next one. Instead, they're a few gradations down from the plateau and the new one is incredibly boring. Same goes for Crispell, who needs to say fuck it and let loose again. She'd do well to shut the book on this trio, Peacock or not, and hire some fire. She likes playing with Europeans, right? Get with Raymond Strid again, perhaps Martin Kucher, and John Edwards or Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten for good measure and get some!

[stonemonkts]

I just read it, and also his review of the new Braxton (23 Standards). I think his expectations are higher than mine for both the Crispell and Stanko recordings. If you enjoy piano trio music along the lines of Bley/Peacock/Motian, then I can't see how you'd be disappointed in Storyteller.

If I wanted to find fault with it I could too (following more or less what I state regarding Bley, et. al.) but to me it is not worth it. I spin it, I think, yeah, Crispell is doing her version of what Bley does on ECM, her playing is very pretty, the trio interacts well, etc and so on, and I'm satisfied as a customer. Reading Dan W.'s review didn't change my opinion.

As far as the Stanko goes, he could have been harsher still, if he wanted. Again, if I wanted to find fault, I could hear how Stanko is doing precisely what bores the shit out of me about players such as Blanchard (trying to sound just like a band from the past, in both cases the Miles mid-60's quintet). Yes, I thought of Hancock, and Stanko plays like a more laid back romanticized version of 1965 Miles Davis. If they had a tenor who sounded like Shorter I would've sold it by now. But instead I hear Stanko playing beautifully in a mid-60's Miles fashion, as well as a very tight-sounding band backing him up nicely. I agree that it is not as adventurous as the other Stanko recordings I know, but I still enjoy it nonetheless.

I completely disagree with his bashing of Nothing Ever Was, Anyway.

Different strokes I guess.

I'd be curious to read what he thought of Bley's ECM trio recordings. I'm too lazy to search though.

[al j]

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

I completely disagree with his bashing of Nothing Ever Was, Anyway.

Me too, Stone.

I agree that both records are pretty, but I mean what I said about Crispell. If she turns any more inward she may implode. Granted she is reaching a wider range of fans she probably never imagined when she was with Braxton or Workman. That's enough to be happy about. The Stanko really, really bored me to tears though. It's Soul of Things (a record I didn't care much for early on but have since become wild about) at its most serene and I was hoping for something else.

i too did not care for this stanko and said so, perhaps too mildly (?)
in my review at OFN. that warburton is a flame thrower. someone
should chide him for such negativism and harshness!

[Nate Dorward]

Amaryllis is pretty good (to judge by one listen--just got it from the library for comparison), but the other two Crispells on ECM are rather precious.

[Rob Damen]

I thought Crispell's "Nothing ..." topped even Keith Jarrett for directionless, impressionistic noodling, and he usually did it on his own; Crispell drags two other people along for the "ride". Yikes! I listened to it on vacation a couple of weeks ago and ended up hating it even more. Perhaps the other two similar releases might be better, but I just didn't find her to be that lyrical or harmonically interesting.

But I did love Stanko's "Soul of Things" and look forward to "Suspended Night", despite some of what's being said here and elsewhere. I know Miles Second Quintet has been mentioned here, but I often times feel it sounds not unlike "Kind of Blue" perhaps more than the Second Quintet. I feel Bill Evans has a huge part of the sound of this band. Sometimes even Guiffre with Bley and Swallow.

Cheers,

Rob

[Tanager]

I just picked this disk up - I'm about halfway through the disk, and while I agree with some of the comparisons, I don't have much (?any?) familiarity with Stanko's earlier work, so I'm not worried about descending from any sort of plateau of expectations, although (contradicting myself) I had sorta guessed it would be something more dissonant - guessed wrong, obviously. But I like the band lots. For me, one of the highlights thus far as been "Suspended Variations, II" (that's a Roman numeral) - here the pianist sounds to me like Jarrett a bit (I mean in a good way, not referencing the noodling aspects of Jarrett's playing), especially the funky left hand comping during his own solo, and I thought I could even hear him vocalizing a bit as he played (anyone else catch that?). But it's a really good disk to my ears, and I'm enjoying it greatly at first listen. "Suspended Variations V" is also pretty sharp, too. The band is crack, to my ears.

[amfortas]

Originally Posted by Nate Dorward

Amaryllis is pretty good (to judge by one listen--just got it from the library for comparison), but the other two Crispells on ECM are rather precious.

I agree, i much prefer her work with Anthony Braxton (eg.,Willisau(quartet) on hat hut), or her early work like Gaia.....something seems to have gone awry.

[Solo Jazz]

Thanks for the reminder, Steve. This is one of my favorite Stanko disc. In fact, track 10 - Suspended Variations 9, has a spot on my all-times favorites play-list!

[Lois Gilbert]