MANU KATCHÉ - Touchstone for Manu (2014) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A specially-price limited edition compilation of the best of Manu Katché on ECM. Here the French drummer is joined in performances of his tunes by an outstanding cast of soloists including Jan Garbarek, Tomasz Stanko, Nils Petter Molvӕr, Trygve Seim, Mathias Eick, Marcin Wasilewski, Tore Brunborg, and Jacob Young. Recorded 2004 -2012 in Oslo, New York and Pernes-les-Fontaines, and drawn from his widely acclaimed albums “Neighbourhood”, “Playground”, “Third Round” and “Manu Katché”. ecm
Tracklist :
1    Song For Her 6'31
(Manu Katché)
2    Number One 6'13
(Manu Katché)
3    Take Off And Land 4'02
(Manu Katché)
4    So Groovy 5'52
(Manu Katché)
5    Morning Joy 5'29
(Manu Katché)
6    Keep On Trippin' 5'32
(Manu Katché)
7    Senses 4'12
(Manu Katché)
8    Swing Piece 4'50
(Manu Katché)
9    Running After Years 6'16
(Manu Katché)
10    Slowing The Tides 5'35
(Manu Katché)
11    Bliss 4'20
(Manu Katché)
Credits :
Manu Katché - Drums
Jan Garbarek - Tenor Saxophone
Tomasz Stanko - Trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Double Bass
Trygve Seim - Tenor Saxophone
Mathias Eick - Trumpet
Jacob Young - Guitar
Pino Palladino - Bass
Jason Rebello - Piano
Jim Watson - Piano, Hammond B3 Organ
Tore Brunborg - Saxophones, Tenor Saxophone
Nils Petter Molvaer - Trumpet, Loops    

MANU KATCHÉ - Neighbourhood (2005) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Manu Katché’s first leader date for ECM finds him fronting a remarkable band, assembled by producer Manfred Eicher, which brings the French-African drummer together with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. Two of Stanko’s gifted young associates, pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz, complete an ensemble which plays Manu’s music with enormous assurance, as if they’ve been playing together for years. Which, indeed, some of them have. As so often with this record label, a “first encounter” trails a network of associations and interwoven histories.... ecm
Tracklist :
1    November 99 5'58
(Manu Katché)
2     Number One 6'10
(Manu Katché)
3    Lullaby 6'08
(Manu Katché)
4    Good Influence 4'56
(Manu Katché)
5    February Sun 4'42
(Manu Katché)
6    No Rush 5'49
(Manu Katché)
7    Lovely Walk 6'14
(Manu Katché)
8    Take Off And Land 3'59
(Manu Katché)
9    Miles Away 4'07
(Manu Katché)
10    Rose 6'11
(Manu Katché)
Credits :
Manu Katché - Drums
Tomasz Stanko - Trumpet
Jan Garbarek - Tenor Saxophone
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Double-Bass   

MANU KATCHÉ - Playground (2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Drummer Manu Katche's sophomore effort for ECM is, in some ways, an extension of his nearly brilliant debut Neighbourhood, issued by the label in 2004. The former recording listed such ECM standard bearers as trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and veteran saxophonist Jan Garbarek on the front line and a rhythm section comprised of pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz (from Stanko's group). Playground keeps the rhythm section intact, but Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim, on trumpet and saxophones respectively, make up the front line. While there can be no denying the lyrical power of the former unit, this one feels more like a band. Seim is a leader in his own right, having released three fine recordings under his own name and been part of numerous ECM ensembles. He and Eick played together in Iro Haarla's band for the wonderful Northbound recording. The trumpeter is also an integral part of guitarist Jacob Young's group whose ECM debut, Evening Falls, was one of 2002's best jazz releases. Manfred Eicher likes to keep it in the family when he's producing, and he hasn't been wrong for a long time. This set was recorded in New York, and though it retains the trademark ECM "sound" in some ways, it's warmer, too. Separation and space abound, but the dynamic reach of this group transcends that at times.

Guitarist David Torn helps out on the opener, "Lo," and third cut "Song for Her." Interestingly, they are two of the quieter cuts on the set, and Torn's support work is largely atmospheric. The symbiotic communication between Eick and Seim is something to behold. Drummer Manu Katche's sophomore effort for ECM is, in some ways, an extension of his nearly brilliant debut Neighbourhood, issued by the label in 2004. The former recording listed such ECM standard bearers as trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and veteran saxophonist Jan Garbarek on the front line and a rhythm section comprised of pianist Marcin Wasilewski and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz (from Stanko's group). Playground keeps the rhythm section intact, but Mathias Eick and Trygve Seim, on trumpet and saxophones respectively, make up the front line. While there can be no denying the lyrical power of the former unit, this one feels more like a band. Seim is a leader in his own right, having released three fine recordings under his own name and been part of numerous ECM ensembles. He and Eick played together in Iro Haarla's band for the wonderful Northbound recording. The trumpeter is also an integral part of guitarist Jacob Young's group whose ECM debut, Evening Falls, was one of 2002's best jazz releases. Manfred Eicher likes to keep it in the family when he's producing, and he hasn't been wrong for a long time. This set was recorded in New York, and though it retains the trademark ECM "sound" in some ways, it's warmer, too. Separation and space abound, but the dynamic reach of this group transcends that at times.

Guitarist David Torn helps out on the opener, "Lo," and third cut "Song for Her." Interestingly, they are two of the quieter cuts on the set, and Torn's support work is largely atmospheric. The symbiotic communication between Eick and Seim is something to behold. The wonderfully tender ballad "Lo" contains the kind of restraint and reliance on gentleness that's difficult for two horn players -- these days anyway -- to hold together as a unit; one usually comes off sounding more dominant than the other. But Katche's pace, with so many subtle fills, and Wasilewski's bridge between the horns is sturdy and moves the melody forward allowing them to hold steady. There are numerous ballads on this set, which is unusual for a drummer, but Katche is nothing if not a lyrical composer. His subtlety is one of his great strengths -- check the quietly insistent brushed hi hat trills in triple time on "Emotions." "So Groovy" is nothing if not modern-day soul-jazz. A skeletal, funky backbeat with Katche playing breaks everywhere relies heavily on Kurkiewicz's bassline to not only keep the pulse, but also to keep it moving. The head in the tune is loping but stays tight. Eick's solo simmers as Katche's percussion and kit work quietly push him even as Wasilewski fills the space with some angular but in-the-cut chords. "Morning Joy" alternates between improvisational sketch and gently swinging mid-tempo ballad. One has to wonder if the solo drumming at the beginning of "Motion" is not a sort of homage to Paul Motian, it replicates his notion of pulse and swing nearly perfectly while keeping Katche's unique snare work his own. The post-bop head in the tune would also seem to suggest that, but the tune moves over a couple of times into other territory without ever straying from that theme too much, and becomes more harmonically complex as it goes. There is also a beautiful bluesy funk element here, that never leaves the realm of controlled tension, but is so seamless it's easy to initially miss the many changes it undergoes -- and there's a killer little solo by Wasilewski.

"Snapshot" is a modern-day glimpse of the classic Blue Note sound of the early to mid-'60s. The themes and solos (particularly by Seim) are modern, but the deep blues and even slightly bossa feel in the rhythms touch on that territory. Katche is at his very best here, dancing like Billy Higgins but deeper in the lower registers of his kit. Them other ballads here, such as "Project 58" and "Possible Thought" are all transformed, chameleon-like, into other things as these wonderfully airy but complex compositions shimmer, slip and slide through the ear. Katche's drumming is quiet but so knotty. He's everywhere, traveling around the band with Kurkiewicz as his foil, guiding this band through his tunes (check the terrain "Inside Games" covers from front to back). The sophisticated urban groove of "Clubbing" is one of the hippest songs Katche's written, with a rolling piano line in the lower register in the head, the drummer breaking and shifting grooves on the bell of his ride cymbal. The solos begin with Eick, and he moves form post-bop to slightly outside, never losing his sense of time or melody. Seim follows suit, but moves to the edges more quickly; his bop phrasing also goes into a kind of modalism around the blues before Wasilewski, becomes a machine, hitting arpeggios insistently and percussively as Katche answers breaking his beat all around him filling that center space. The interplay between the two men is never better than it is here and could have gone on far longer. The set closes with a variation of "Song for Her" that feels more like a reprise than anything else. The first version is so utterly beautiful it seems almost superfluous. In all, Playground is a step ahead of its predecessor; namely because Katche's compositions, while they are more complex, have lost none of their inherent lyricism. The two new front line players have brought with them the experience of playing together and this rhythm section has worked together for a while. They fold into the mix of the ensemble rather than simply standing out on their own. Playground is an exciting new chapter in Katche's evolution as a leader; but more than this, bodes well for the future of jazz: it never loses sight of itself, but moves the various threads of its subgenres further without stretching any of them to the breaking point.
>This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<
Tracklist :
1    Lo 6'25
(Manu Katché)
2    Pieces Of Emotion 4'13
(Manu Katché)
3    Song For Her 6'24
(Manu Katché)
4    So Groovy 5'50
(Manu Katché)
5    Morning Joy 5'27
(Manu Katché)
6    Motion 5'14
(Manu Katché)
7    Project 58 6'13
(Manu Katché)
8    Snapshot 4'53
(Manu Katché)
9    Possible Thought 6'03
(Manu Katché)
10    Inside Game 5'06
(Manu Katché)
11    Clubbing 7'03
(Manu Katché)
12    Song For Her (Var) 6'22
(Manu Katché)
Credits :
Manu Katché - Drums
Mathias Eick - Trumpet
Trygve Seim - Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Double-Bass
David Torn - Guitar 

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO - January (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

On their sophomore effort for ECM, the Marcin Wasilewski Trio (pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz, and drummer Michal Miskiewicz -- who are also Polish trumpet maestro Tomasz Stanko's rhythm section) reflect the true sign of their maturity as a group of seasoned jazz musicians and risk-takers. Their debut album, simply called Trio, merely reflected to American and Western European audiences the wealth of talent, vision, and discipline that Polish and Eastern Europe's audiences had known for over a decade. (The group recorded five previous albums in its native country between 1993 and 2004.) They came together in 1991 as teenagers: Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz were only 16 and had already been playing together for a year when they met up with Miskiewicz. In 1993 they began playing behind Stanko, and eventually became his recording group as well. They were first heard on his 2001 album The Soul of Things, as well as his subsequent ECM outings, Suspended Night and Lontano. But all of this is history and history only. It doesn't begin to tell of the magic and mystery found in this beautiful album. There are four Wasilewski compositions in this ten-cut set. They range from the lovely songlike opener, "The First Touch," with its romantic melody that suggests Bill Evans' late "Song for Evan" period, as well as elliptical European improvisers like Bobo Stenson. But it's that inherent sense of dimension and space that is in all the best Polish jazz that makes this is such a stellar tune. The utterly lyrical brush and cymbal work by Miskiewicz and present yet uncluttered bassline of Kurkiewicz allow the full range of Wasilewski's reach from melodic invention to gently ambiguous modal exploration to come to the fore. The group's reading of Ennio Morricone's "Cinema Paradiso" underscores the deep and inseparable relationship between Polish jazz and the cinema that has existed since the collaborations between director Roman Polanski and Stanko's first boss, pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda. The sense of dynamic that the trio goes for on this piece is perhaps less forcefully pronounced than the composer's, but it is almost a reading of its other side, where the brooding aspects of the original give way to something fuller and more picaresque, while allowing its sense of nostalgia and memory free rein inside the narrative of the tune.

This is followed by one of the set's true highlights, a killer jazz reading of Prince's "Diamonds and Pearls," led by a tough little three-note bass intro by Kurkiewicz; he proceeds to underscore every note in the melody with a fill. It's difficult to know for the first couple of minutes exactly what the trio is getting at here, but just before the extrapolation of the harmony and its inversion it becomes clear and it gains a more aurally recognizable quality. The tune is soulful and romantic, and contains all of the inherent lyricism that Prince employs in its chord structure, adding just a little of jazz's sense of adventure in the final third of the tune and wrapping it all together into something new. This is a worthy interpretation if there ever was one. Interestingly, the trio tackles some tunes by ECM standard-bearers as well. There are innovative, challenging, and very fresh-sounding versions of Gary Peacock's "Vignette," Carla Bley's "King Korn" (which retains all of its knotty humor and then adds some of its own), and Stanko's gorgeous and enduring "Balladyna"-- the title cut from his own ECM debut back in the 1970s. Three longer Wasilewski compositions -- "The Cat," the title track, and another crack at the relationship between Polish film and jazz in "The Young and the Cinema" -- dominate the second half of the record by giving the band a chance to really stretch and fly. All of these tunes, but particularly the last one, reveal the trio members' ability to swing effortlessly together no matter how complex the music gets as it moves from post-bop to angular impressionistic jazz. The final cut is a muted improvisation that is, if anything, all too brief. This is terrific second effort by a band that, despite the fact that its members have been together for 17 years, is only really coming into its own in the present moment.
(This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa')
Tracklist :
1    The First Touch 4'13
(Marcin Wasilewski)
2    Vignette 8'05
(Gary Peacock)
3    Cinema Paradiso 8'30
(Andrea Morricone, Ennio Morricone)
4    Diamonds And Pearls 5'45
(Prince Rogers Nelson)
5    Balladyna 6'46
(Tomasz Stanko)
6    King Korn 6'45
(Carla Bley)
7    The Cat 9'58
(Marcin Wasilewski)
8    January 8'38
(Marcin Wasilewski)
9    The Young And Cinema 9'08
(Marcin Wasilewski)
10    New York 2007 2'46
(Marcin Wasilewski, Michal Miskiewicz, Slawomir Kurkiewicz)
Credits :
Marcin Wasilewski   Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz   Double-Bass
Michal Miskiewicz   Drums

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO - Faithful (2011) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Dazzling third ECM album by Poland’s Wasilewski Trio, which perfectly captures the group’s blend of energy and lyricism. There is space here for both the outgoing and the reflective, for profound composition and in-the-moment creativity. The wide-ranging repertoire on “Faithful” (named after the Ornette Coleman title track) includes five new tunes from the pen of Marcin Wasilewski and timeless pieces by Paul Bley and Hermeto Pascoal. From the standard repertory, the trio plays “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men”. Reaching beyond jazz, the players also find a new approach to Hanns Eisler’s “An den kleinen Radioapparat”. ecm
Tracklist :
1    An den kleinen Radioapparat 4'30
(Hanns Eisler)
2    Night Train To You 10'41
(Marcin Wasilewski)
3    Faithful 7'16
(Ornette Coleman)
4    Mosaic 10'34
(Marcin Wasilewski)
5   Ballad Of The Sad Young Men  5'29
(Frances Landesman, Thomas Wolf)
6    Oz Guizos 6'32
(Hermeto Pascoal)
7    Song For Swirek 8'14
(Marcin Wasilewski)
8    Woke Up In The Desert 5'32
(Marcin Wasilewski)
9    Big Foot 6'21
(Paul Bley)
10    Lugano Lake 6'33
(Marcin Wasilewski)
Credits :
Marcin Wasilewski   Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz   Double-Bass
Michal Miskiewicz   Drums

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO w / JOAKIM MILDER - Spark Of Life (2014) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The fourth ECM album for the Wasilewski Trio adds a special guest, the lyrical Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder, whom the Poles came to know through performances with Tomasz Stanko’s Litania project. Amongst other affinities, the players share a love of Krzyzstof Komeda’s music, and Komeda’s “Sleep Safe and Warm” theme, written for Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby make a reappearance here. As ever, the Wasilewski group balances original material – intensely melodic new tunes by Marcin (including two variations of the beautiful title track) – with a daring range of covers, embracing Herbie Hancock, the Police’s “Message In A Bottle” and Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s arrangement of a composition by Grazyna Bacewicz, and reinforces its status as one of the most resourceful groups around. This is the trio’s second ECM appearance this year, following on from sterling work as Jacob Young’s rhythm section on Forever Young. ecm
Tracklist :
1    Austin 7'07
(Marcin Wasilewski)
2    Sudovian Dance 6'28
(Marcin Wasilewski)
3    Spark Of Life 6'33
(Marcin Wasilewski)
4    Do rycerzy, do szlachty, do mieszczan 4'37
(Pawel Krawczyk, Katarzyna Nosowska)
5    Message In A Bottle 7'36
(Sting)
6    Sleep Safe And Warm 6'55
(Krzysztof Komeda)
7    Three Reflections 8'33
(Marcin Wasilewski)
8    Still 6'44
(Joakim Milder)
9    Actual Proof 6'05
(Herbie Hancock)
10    Largo 8'05
(Grazyna Bacewicz)
11    Spark Of Life, Var. 5'01
(Marcin Wasilewski)
Credits :
Marcin Wasilewski   Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz   Double Bass
Michal Miskiewicz   Drums
Joakim Milder   Tenor Saxophone

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO - Live (2018) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

For years, fans of Poland’s Marcin Wasilewski Trio have been asking for a live album. Here it is. Recorded at the Jazz Middelheim Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, in August 2016, it captures the trio in energetic, extroverted mode, fanning the flames of their Spark of Life repertoire and drawing on the deep understanding Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz have established in the course of a quarter century of shared musical endeavour. As UK magazine Jazz Journal has noted, “Wasilewski’s music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvellously melodic concept.”ecm

Tracklist :
1    Spark Of Life / Sudovian Dance 12'29
(Marcin Wasilewski)
2    Message In A Bottle 10'43
(Sting – G.M. Sumner)
3    Three Reflections 9'13
(Marcin Wasilewski)
4    Night Train To You 13'32
(Marcin Wasilewski)
5    Austin 7'42
(Marcin Wasilewski)
6    Actual Proof 10'40
(Herbie Hancock)
Credits :
Double Bass – Slawomir Kurkiewicz
Drums – Michal Miskiewicz
Piano – Marcin Wasilewski
Producer – Manfred Eicher