ECM Records, Live, Marcin Wasilewski Trio, vinyl record

1 Spark Of Life / Sudovian Dance
(Marcin Wasilewski, Marcin Wasilewski)
12:29
2 Message In A Bottle
(Gordon Sumner)
10:43
3 Three Reflections
(Marcin Wasilewski)
09:13
4 Night Train To You
(Marcin Wasilewski)
13:32
5 Austin
(Marcin Wasilewski)
07:42
6 Actual Proof
(Herbie Hancock)
10:40

In this 'Live' environment, partially fueled by an enthusiastic audience, the trio surpasses even their best studio material.
Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

War das Trio an der Seite von Tomasz Stanko noch das filigree-leichtfüßige Gegenüber zu dessen brüchigen, schwermütig-rauen Melodielinien, so zeigt sich die Band ‚Live' nunmehr stichter als energiegeladenes Powerpaket. Sensibel gespielte Melodien und dynamische Improvisationen verbinden sich in der Musik des Trios mit technischer Vollkommenheit zu einem kollektiv agerenden Ganzen.
Heribert Ickerott, Jazzpodium

Das Repertoire speist sich vorwiegend aus dem ‚Spark Of Life'-Programm, der Kollaboration mit saxophonist Joachim Milder von 2013. In diesen Stücken ist das Trio im Vergleich zu den Studio-Fassungen mit deutlich erhöheter Energiezufuhr zu hören. Das gilt auch für ‚Night Train To You' vom Faithfull-Album, in dessen Verlauf das Trio so sehr zur Einheit verschmilzt, das kaum mehr zu sagen ist, wer nun gerade soliert und wer begleitet. In dem sanften ‚Three Reflections' offenbaren die Musiker ihr sensibles Spiel. Man kann die Spannung im Saal regelrecht püren. Das Staunen, den Sog.
Sebastian Meißner, Soundsandbooks

Mit leichter Hand zeichnet Marcin Wasilewski als Primus inter Pares fabelhafte Piano-Melodien von flirrendem Spielwitz. For this, Slawomir Kurkiewicz pulsates mit schönem Ton delicate Bass-Lines, which perfectly complement the refined accented drumming of Michal Miskiewicz. Nach vier prachtvoll dynamische Tracks sett das balladeske ‚Austin' einen derart anrührenden Kontrapunkt, dass es im Pp sofort ein Chart-Breaker würde. Herbie Hancocks ‚Actual Proof' brings finally ihre Weltklasse auf den Punkt: So souverän agiert deritz kein anderes Piano-Trio.
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld, HiFi Records

Kaum zu glauben: Solche Klänge vor 4.000 Zuhörern! Noch dazu eine Aufnahme, von der Wasilewski und seine beiden Kollegen erst nach dem Konzert erfuhren. Sie spielten also nicht für das Mikrophon, sondern für das Publikum – und für den Moment. Und an dem stimmte offenbar alles. Bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz und Schlagzeuger Michal Miskiewicz sind seit langem die Trio-Partner Marcin Wasilewskis: ein Dreier-Gespann, das meitander atmet und besonders viel Sinn für atmosphärische Intensität hat. Und für Drive - wenn es sein muss. Festzustellung etwa in einem Stück, das im Original von dem Sänger Sting und seiner Band The Police stammt. Ein Pop-Klassiker, hier im Jazztrio-Gewand: ‚Message in a Bottle': Ein Ensemble wie dieses lässt die Hörer auch solch einen Gassenhauer wieder neu entdecken. Ein über zehn Minuten langes, breath-taking Erlebnis jazziger Klang-Dramatik macht es will do.
Roland Spiegel, Bayerischer Rundfunk

The team does some wonderfully selected pieces of other artists for interpretation; The Police's 'Message in a Bottle' is a deep and delicate pulsation of extrapolation, and Herbie Hancock's 'Actual Proof' has some intrepid interplay between Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz. Wasilewiski's own 'Spark of Life/Sudovian Dance' opens with soft reflective spaces before building up into a dramatic passion, while his 'Three Reflections' has autumnal brush work and a bass solo that is like water color brush strokes. Open spaces with a full moon glowing from above.
George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

Recorded by Flemish radio in Antwerp 2016 without the trio's knowledge, this accidental live disc not only delivers to followers of this long-lived Polish unit an essential live document, it washes over newcomers like a cresting baptismal wave that never stops cleansing the soul and senses. Nearing thirty years as a unit—they also served as the late trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's adventurous rhythm section from 2001-2006)—the ability of pianist Marcin Wasilewski, double bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz to anticipate and activate each other's musical turns and temptations is a marvel to experience.
Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz

Throughout, the trio's bluesy, propulsive groove factor contrasts with a majestic classical music sensibility […] a raw (you can feel the presence of the huge, 4000 capacity audience), yet sonically well-balanced mix, retains the electricity of their live performances, as anyone who's seen the trio perform would recognise.
Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise

There's a galaxy of piano trios in today's jazz universe, but few shine as bright as Marcin Wasilewski's. […] The Sting tune 'Message in a Bottle' has a gently delirious quality, Wasilewski drifting from the theme only to be drawn back by Kurkiewicz reiterating the melody on bass; the urgent 'Night Train to You' rattles off the leader's right hand, stoked by a surging rhythm. Another original piece, 'Austin' is a perfect palimpsest of Polish melancholy combined with the blue poetry of American jazz. It's a gorgeous album.
Garry Booth, BBC Music Magazine

Since 1993, the Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewski has been playing with his compatriots, the bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and the drummer Michal Miskiewicz in an unveränderter Besetzung – such continuity is rare in Jazz. Entsprechend feinnervig ihr Interplay auf den sechs Stücken dieses Albums. Nevertheless, it is nicht wier eine Jam-Session, klingt weder intim noch entspannät, sondern im Gegenteil packend und fesselnd, teilmensei auch hochenergetisch.
Harry Schmidt, Jazzthetik

This band is, for me, the greatest jazz piano trio the world currently has to offer. Their line-up has not changed in a quarter of a century, and in that time they have become so cohesive as to sound like one person somehow managing to play all three instruments at once. Wasilewski, bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz are truly telepathic. […] The gentler tunes quiver with the same intensity and drama as the fast ones: 'Three Reflections' and the gorgeously melodic 'Austin' are both examples of this. The trio never strays into discord or ugliness, yet maintains a distinctively modern sensibility.
Peter Jones, London Jazz News

Die impressive Live-Atmosphere dieser CD versmittel sich zum Beispiel in der Triofassung des Songs ‚Message in a bottle' von der legendaryären Band The Police. Völlig losgelöst im Hier und Jetzt interpretiert das Marcin Wasilewski Trio diesen Titel und treibt das Publikum mit stetem Rhythmus vor sich her. Erst nach zehn Minuten erreichen die Musiker atemlos so etwas wie eine kleine Kunstpause, bevor es mit dem nächsten Aufreger weitergeht. […] Faszinierend an der Live-Aufnahme ist, dass man bei den ruhigen Stücken eine Stecknadel fallen könnte hören. Das Publikum hält einfach den Atem an und läßt sich von dem Trio davontragen. Marcin Wasilewski am Klavier, Slawomir Kurkiewicz am Bass und Michal Miskiewicz am Schlagzeug sind dann vollkommen eins. A Mini-Ensemble that has been perfectly tuned for years.
Georg Waßmuth, Südwestrundfunk

Mostly reworkings of previously recorded material, the tracks pulse with fresh vigour, right from the opening 'Spark of Life'/'Sudovian Dance', balancing delicacy and exuberance over a tidal surge of bass and drums. There's a similarly powerful current to 'Night Train to You' while the ballad 'Austin' radiates a winsome melodic delicacy. The Police's 'Message in a Bottle' certainly travels, and with irresistible and ominous drive, a springy bass break spelling out the tune before piano whirrs back in, giving way to a boisterous drum solo before things subside in a sort of Morse code signaling from all three.
Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman

What's displayed on the long awaited 'Live', documenting a 2016 performance at the Jazz Middelheim festival in Antwerp, Belgium is a telepathy and intimacy of three musicians so comfortable with the music they can take it anywhere, whether it's floating as gracefully as a night mist or with pulsating drive. For first time listeners of the trio, the recording is a treat and entry into a polished mode of operation and for long time fans, they can sink into the extended readings. […] 'Live' is a satisfying, magisterial performance from the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. The pianist flows forward with twinkling streams of ideas that move in and out of the excellent accompaniment of his band mates that allow the tunes to expand, contract, and adopt intriguing contours.
CJ Shearn, Jazz Views

"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 marvelously melodic concept."
Jazz Journal
Followers of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio have long clamored for a live album. The Polish group made this one "by accident", unaware that their August 2016 performance at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp had been recorded by the festival. On listening, they felt that it captured the soul of things rather well, "maybe because there was no awareness of playing to the microphone." Unselfconsciously dynamic and outgoing, the trio draws an enthusiastic response from the audience. "Being out in front of an audience of 4,000 doesn't change your playing or your skills," Marcin Wasilewski reflects, "but with a crowd of this size you have to project more energy. You can hear that in this recording." Bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz adds, "I think this album nicely captures what we have developed over the years in the live playing, and the way that the music can change in concert. It's an important document for us."
For the Wasilewski Trio, studio and live are complementary experiences. "Studio work is quite a hermetic process," says Marcin. "It's where we try to get optimal, compact, condensed versions of the pieces. And live work has to do with adjusting the flow and communicating with an audience. We like both aspects."
Repertoire on Live is drawn largely from the program developed for Spark of Life, the group's 2013 collaboration with saxophonist Joakim Milder, now presented in extended and cranked-up versions for piano trio. Spark of Life's title track flows seamlessly into “Sudovian Dance” at the start of the album. Other Wasilewski originals here are “Three Reflections”, “Austin” (with particularly graceful solos by Sławomir and Marcin) and “Night Train To You” (first heard on 2011's Faithful) which works up a tremendous head of steam. "Actual Proof" effectively translates the energy and percolating rhythms of this Herbie Hancock piece (written for the movie The Spook Who Sat By The Door and further developed on 1974's Thrust) into the acoustic context – a powerhouse performance by Marcin Wasilewski, Sławomir Kurkiewicz and Michał Miśkiewicz. The trio members count Hancock among their formative influences.
"Message In A Bottle" belongs to the trio's adaptations of pop material; they've previously recorded pieces by Björk and Prince. "Message" was also on Spark of Life, but their involvement with the old Police hit goes back much further, to the earliest days of the trio at the Koszalin high school, circa 1990. When they first broached it, Marcin recalls, Sławomir was playing guitar. "That was before my time," laughs drummer Miskiewicz who joined the band in 1993, completing what has become one of the most stable line-ups in modern jazz. Listening to Live it is impossible to miss the deep musical empathy of the players, the quality that The Guardian called "their ability to pick up and amplify each other's thoughts" – it's the kind of improvisational communication that can only be developed over time.
Marcin Wasilewski, Sławomir Kurkiewicz and Michał Miśkiewicz first recorded for ECM as members of Tomasz Stanko's quartet on the album Soul of Things (2001), soon followed by Suspended Night (2003) and Lontano (2005). Previous ECM albums in trio format are Trio (2004), January (2007) and Faithful (2011), with Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder joining them for Spark of Life (2013). All three trio members appear on Forever Young (2013) with Jacob Young and Trygve Seim, and Wasilewski and Kurkiewicz also play on Manu Katche's Neighborhood (2004) and Playground (2007).
The Wasilewski Trio is touring widely this autumn, with concerts in Poland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Croatia and Luxembourg. For details of dates visit www.ecmrecords.com