CD Choice:Jazz
MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO January ECM *****
One of the striking aspects of trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's successful Polish quartet is the way the balance of influence within the band has shifted away from the leader towards his youthful rhythm section. In their own joint development, pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz have gradually altered the nature of the quartet to what is almost a contemporary take on straight- ahead.
It's not that simple, of course. But the trio's first ECM release, Trio (2005), did more than mark its emergence internationally as an entity separate from Stanko. It also revealed a still- evolving group whose protean character was going to take them on their own path, with a gifted pianist who seemed able to draw on a well of inspiration that never ran dry.
January confirms that impression. This trio is now one of the finest in jazz, its mutual ease and intuition something to marvel at. Musically and extra-musically it remains a co-operative; Wasiliweski's name on the marquee is a concession to the custom for naming piano trios, but the pianist is nevertheless a key figure. He's a kind of aural painter who puts the colours on the group's canvases while the others shape and highlight them, in a kind of impressionism that allows the trio's fluid interaction free rein and permits the band to evoke, sustain and resolve a considerable mood spectrum.
Think of the spare, shimmering lyricism of The First Touch, Wasilewski's lovely ballad; the mix of tenderness, nostalgia and valediction of their almost visual Cinema Paradiso; the extrovert, lithe dance of Prince's Diamonds and Pearls; the intense, dark scrutiny of Stanko's Balladyna; and the sombre beauty of Wasilewski's January.
The rubato playing throughout is stunning, done without compromising the group's underlying strength of rhythmic purpose. There is no loss of drama or intensity, epitomised in the marvellously unrestricted interplay on Carla Bley's quirky King Korn, with the trio revelling in its capacity to take the performance anywhere in complete security. On another striking Wasilewski original, The Young and the Cinema, the trio's driving performance even includes the old straight-ahead device of a piano-drums chase, rigorously observed but arising organically from the interplay.
To stamp authority on such diverse material is itself a measure of the strength of the band's personality - and their maturity. www.musicconnection.org.uk - RAY COMISKEY
