Marcin Wasilewski Trio - En Attendant

    Marcin Wasilewski Trio – En Attendant

    01 Jul

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    Label: ECM Records – ECM 2677
    Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
    Country: Germany
    Released: 2021
    Genre: Jazz
    Style: Contemporary Jazz

    This album caught me by surprise but to say that, I’m implying that I had certain expectations and those expectations were exceeded. However, in truth I had no prior expectations. I was just listening to a collection of different music one day and saw this record. I knew of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, as I’d heard their previous albums, ‘Spark of Life’ and ‘Arctic Riff’ and I really enjoyed the atmosphere that these guys can create. Once I heard this album, my first thought was ‘more people should know about this’.

    You can tell that pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz have been playing together for almost thirty years. The musicians operate as a single entity, effortlessly passing the lead between each other with subtlety & nuance. This is their seventh album, released in 2021 and was conceived just prior to Wasilewsky’s collaboration with the saxophonist Joe Lovano in 2020. A delay in the flight of the American musician provided some unexpected time for the trio to experiment some ideas that eventually became this album.

    This is contemporary jazz at its best, covering material by such varied composers as J.S. Bach, Carla Bley and The Doors and bringing it all together in a seamless package which also includes three spontaneously created group improvisations. It is a creative beauty that weaves a magical soundscape.

    Lasting between 6-7 minutes, the three parts of “In Motion” are rhythmically inspired and exist within the contemplative and the assertive at the same time. The opening first part is shaped with bewitching melodic and harmonic contours, whereas the second, more percussive and peacefully atmospheric, reveals lovely timbral shades as a result of the interplay between the pianist and the other two excellent players. Part III enhances the charms of the piano and bass deliveries, allows the delicate cymbal washes of the drummer to become salient before the trio sports its more explorative side.

    Both Wasilewski’s “Glimmer of Hope” and Carla Bley’s “Vashkar” are revisited here, manifesting as emotionally engaging horn-free pieces. If the former is guided by the sensitive brushwork of Miskiewicz, the latter piece includes a beautiful bass solo and a more eloquent piano statement that never spins out of control into the chaos.

    The classical minor-flavoured ideals of Bach are heard on “Goldberg Variation no. 25”, a ballad carrying a deep sense of sadness and loss that the trio navigates with a delicate interpretation of their own. There’s also The Doors’ pop/rock classic “Riders on the Storm”, a serious candidate to the best track on the album, in which an elegant jazzy approach and warmly burnished groove give it a unique quality.

    This album can be used as a meditation, an intellectual journey or an exercise in sitting in the present. The atmosphere of the recording is rarefied, ethereal and every note is measured, essential and conceived to give to the listener a sense of resonant images. This is the highlight of the album, as well as the collective awareness & deep interaction between the musicians. Turn the lights off, close your eyes and surrender…

    Enjoy!

    Track listing

    1. In Motion Part I
    2. Variation No. 25
    3. Vashkar
    4. In Motion Part II
    5. Glimmer Of Hope
    6. Riders On The Storm
    7. In Motion Part III
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