Marcin Wasilewski Trio, photo by Tomek Sikora / ECM
The Izmir European Jazz Festival ranks just after the Istanbul International Jazz Festival among Turkey's annual events dedicated to jazz. Each edition presents European and Turkish talents in the nation's third largest city, along the picturesque Mediterranean coast. Polish musicians and bands are regular guests at the Izmir festival, with previous editions featuring Urszula Dudziak and her band and the Tomasz Stańko Quintet. This year it hosts the Marcin Wasilewski trio - an ensemble with ties to Stańko, that is also signed to the ECM label.
The trio, led by Marcin Wasilewski on piano, features bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz. Founded in the mid 1990s, the group initially operated as the Simple Acoustic Trio. Their first album, a tribute to Krzysztof Komeda, was released in 1995. They began collaborating and performing with Polish jazz legend Tomasz Stańko. They have been working as the Marcin Wasilewski Trio since 2008.
Faithful, their latest release, was recorded in summer 2010 in Lugano, Switzerland, with EMC's founding producer Manfred Eicher, and released in March 2011. Inspired by the melancholic melodies of Ornette Coleman, Faithful was the focus of the band's international concert tour in 2011 that included cities across Germany and sets at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival in summer 2012.
Reviewers have bestowed praise on Faithful. John Kellman of allaboutjazz.com described "Night Train to You" , the second track, as "driven by Miskiewicz's subtle pulse and Kurkiewicz's muscular anchor, demonstrat[ing] how effortless irregular meters can be, when everyone is playing through them, as opposed to on them". He calls Wasilewski's solo on the track
a tremendous example of motivic development, each successive line a logical evolution from what came before, as the pianist responds to reciprocal pushes and prods from his bandmates, leading to a coda of unexpected calm after the storm of Miskiewicz's solo.
Ultimately Kellman finds the trio finely balanced as its "DNA-level empathy encourages an effortless flow of ideas, including a particularly lithe solo from the robust-toned Kurkiewicz".
Brent Burton of jazztimes.com also singles out "Night Train to You", describing how
the [Chick] Corea-esque melody gives way to a riffy collective improvisation, which is marked by Wasilewski’s blocky comping, drummer Michal Miskiewicz’s rain-on-tin-roof cymbal patter and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s nook-filling fret work. Turn it up loud or turn it down low; either way, it’s one of the best piano-trio recordings you’ll hear this year.
The trio's performances at the Izmir Festival are their second visit to Turkey in recent months, following a December 2012 appearance at Istanbul's Borusan Muzik Evi. The Izmir European Jazz Festival takes place between the 4th - 20th of March 2013, with the Marcin Wasilewski Trio performing on the 12th at 8:30 pm at the AASSM Concert Hall. Other featured acts this year include the Kerem Görsev Therapy Project, David Helbock Trio and Edmar Castaneda Trio. See the full programme at: www.iksev.org.
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart based on the original article by Filip Lech, with additional information from www.iksev.org, jazztimes.com, allaboutjazz.com.