Piotr Schmidt - trumpet
Wojciech Niedziela - piano
Maciej Garbowski - double bass
Krzysztog Gradziuk - drums
Tribute To Tomasz Stańko
SJ 038
By Adam Baruch
This is an album by Polish Jazz
trumpeter / composer / bandleader / entrepreneur Piotr Schmidt, recorded in a
quartet setting with pianist Wojciech Niedziela, bassist Maciej Garbowski and
drummer Krzysztof Gradziuk. The album presents twelve compositions, eight of
which are credited to all four members of the quartet, two were composed by
Schmidt and one each were composed by Krzysztof Komeda and Bartek Pieszka.
The death of the Polish /
European Jazz icon, trumpeter / composer / bandleader Tomasz Stańko, in June of
2018, marked an end of a chapter, or rather an end of an era in European Jazz.
Although in recent years many of the most prominent representatives of post
WWII European Jazz sadly departed, Stanko was in many respects more than most an
epitome of modern European Jazz and his life and career exemplified the most
important characteristics of the idiom. His relentless search of uncharted
territory, complete disregard of fads and fashions, his open-mindedness and
chameleonic, often extremely dramatic changes in his stylistic approach to Jazz
and above all his aesthetics, with reminded uncompromising till the very end,
were all also often characteristic of many other leading European Jazz Masters,
who managed to create an entirely new form of the Jazz essence, completely free
of the limitations and shackles enslaving the genre in the past.
Tributes are a tricky business,
especially so in the case of iconic figures, which were active for decades and
managed to produce not only a rich legacy of recorded music, but more
importantly were constantly groundbreaking and innovative. How can a
"tribute" album express a respectful and artistically coherent
picture of an icon? It takes a lot of courage and determination to attempt a
tribute recording, which will be meaningful and offer some intrinsic value
beyond being just a reflection of the light of a Giant, with the possibility of
failure always lurking in the background.
Considering the fact that
Stanko's legacy was to a large extent involved with Avant-garde, Improvised
Music and Free Jazz, whereas Schmidt consistently dedicates his career to more
mainstream manifestations of the Jazz idiom, always emphasizing melody,
harmony, ambience and lyricism, the first reaction to the idea of Schmidt
recording a Stańko tribute might be that of disbelief and surprise. But Schmidt
already proved to be a mastermind of invention in the past and this time he has
surely outdone himself, by finding an ingredient of Stańko's legacy that fits
like a glove to his own modus operandi. As a result Schmidt, rather than
creating a "general" tribute to Stańko, decided to put the spotlight
on the gentler side of the Stańko's heritage – Stańko the charmer, the
balladeer, the weaver of heartbreakingly beautiful melodies, in short Stańko
the Gentle Giant.
The resulting concept presents
an album full of beautiful, melodic, lyrical Jazz, which strongly resembles
that gentle side of Stanko that we all love, but at the same time is completely
original as far as the music itself is concerned. The atmosphere and ambience
of the album are wonderfully coherent and the music flows serenely penetrating
directly the very soul of the listener. The decision of not using and specific
tunes composed by Stańko, but creating instead music that "might have been
composed" by him is of course brilliant in every respect.
The quartet performing the
music is ideal for the task. Garbowski and Gradziuk played with Stańko in the
recent years and know his music intimately, and their position as one of the
leading Polish Jazz rhythm sections is fully justified. They add the
ingredients of space and freedom to the quartet's playing, which is exactly
what this music needs to make it completely unwavering and related to Stańko's
musical spirit. Niedziela is beautifully romantic and expressive, with each and
every note he plays being exactly what is needed to make the overall sound
perfect. Schmidt plays delightfully as well, rather sparingly and delicately,
again exactly right for what this music needs. At times, with the eyes closed,
his trumpet sounds exactly like Stanko's, but obviously Schmidt is not trying
to imitate Stańko's playing but, as the entire album does, reproduce the very
Stańkoish ambience and spirituality.
Overall this is a wonderfully
executed and cleverly planned piece of music, which achieves the ambitious goal
assigned to it in full. It is also a textbook example of what
"tribute" albums should sound like, as well as a wonderful example of
a bridge over a chasm of the infamous generation gap, which enables a smooth
transition of the heritage from one generation to another. Polish Jazz at its
best!
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