Tomasz Stańko Quartet

Lots of people looked forward to this. He's a popular man, Tomasz Stańko. Not to mention his other three band members, Slawomir Kurkiewicz - bass, Michal Miskiewicz - drums and Marcin Wasilewski - piano.

I'm so tired that I'm more easily transported, I think. Though that's not to take away from this Quartet's ability to do that anyway. They did transport me.

I particularly noticed Stańko's trumpet tonight, attributing to it--in a miriam-centric quasi-anthrompmorphic kind of way--all sorts of emotions and expressions. His notes seemed clear and unequivocal. Even the airy ones :-) I pondered this as I drove home afterwards. Just privately, without revealing too much, today's been one characterised by vulnerability (mine). So what I heard was probably affected by that. I notice that some players have that knack of connection with the intangible 'is' and an audience member will find that in the presence of that player's music, non-verbal, emotional experiences resonate with the music as either vehicle, intensifier, purging mechanism... or all three.

I heard a universal cry tonight and a celebration too, of all that arrives at the end of any journey that takes us through fire and tests our mettle. I've noticed that in Stańko's music before. There's something in there that connects to the bigger thing. And if you're connected too (as we cannot help being when we are vulnerable) then he can take you there. To the bigger thing. The thing that is...

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Comments in the foyer:

Punter 8 said he'd like to hear Stańko without the trio. The trio is tightly knit, a trio unto itself. No surprise, given that that's what they are and what they have been since Stańko found them... They interact well with each other but sometimes Stańko seems almost superfluous.

Turned out it was a consensus. They all want to hear him out of that context again...

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Sound note:

What is going on? Apart from the "Piano-too-loud, horns-too-soft" issue I may have mentioned once or twice (!), on more than one occasion, someone on stage has wanted to use a microphone to say something and there's been a considerable delay in activating it, so you get a bit of silent mouthing to start with until someone up the back turns a knob. Tomasz copped it this time!

Ocker announcement
Well, there wasn't alot he could do to butcher Tomasz Stańko 's name. Though he did try, without the 'sch' sound at the end of Tomasz. I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to that disembodied broadly accented voice. Any minute now.