Wednesday, May 11, 2005  

Marcin Wasilewski
Slawomir Kurkiewicz
Michal Miskiewicz
"Hyperballad"
Trio
(ECM, 2005)

Bjork is quietly on her way to becoming the new Cole Porter for jazz musicians---and it's about friggin' time. (Throw Radiohead in there, too.) After all, there have been thousands of great songs written since, like, 1950, and it's about time skilled musicians apply their interpretive skills to this generation's finest tunesmiths.

MSM---as I will call them because I don't want to get a knot in my hands trying to type their names again---have been the backing band on trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's last two albums, Soul of Things and Suspended Night (both fantastic), and Trio marks their international debuts as leaders. (I understand that there are some Poland-only CDs; anybody got a line on them? Hollaback, girl.) EDIT: You can buy the group's Lullaby for Rosemary CD for $17 right here: PolishJazz.com

The threesome's version of "Hyperballad" (and the whole Trio album, for that matter) is in the tradition of the Tord Gustavsen and In the Country tunes I've posted: Twilight music for those who find whispering a little too loud.

Old jazz nerds---which means 90% of the music's audience these days---love to point out how young certain musicians are and how amazing it is that they can play such good music even though they are practically toddlers.

Eff them.

Who cares?

The MSM guys, all in their early 20s, are really talented now, and I imagine they'll still be great when they hit 40, 50 & 60. Whoop-de-damn-do.

You can download an MP3 of MSM's "Free-bop" from America's Jazz Magazine in NAFTA Territories, as well as some other good stuff by Tord Gustavsen, Sonny Rollins, Vijay Iyer, Henry Kaiser & Wadada Leo Smith and more.

Buy MSM's Trio here and the two Tomasz Stanko CDs they play on here and here.

Posted by CP | Link |

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