Tomasz Stanko "Litania" live at JazzFest Berlin 2011

Tomasz Stańko trumpet
Mark Turner saxophone
Joakim Milder saxophone
Marcin Wasilewski piano
Sławomir Kurkiewicz bass
Michał Miśkiewicz drums
recorded live at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 3, 2011

1. Litania (Krysztof Komeda)
2. Sleep Safe And Warm (Krysztof Komeda)
3. Svantetic (Krysztof Komeda)
4. Ballada (Krysztof Komeda)

Tomasz Stańko was 20 and a graduate of the Cracow Music Academy when he formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with pianist Adam Makowicz in 1962. Inspired by early Ornette Coleman and the innovations of Coltrane, Miles Davis and George Russell, the group is often cited by music historians as the first European group to play free jazz, but for the trumpeter its importance was eclipsed by the invitation to join Krzysztof Komeda’s quintet the following year. Stańko toured for five years with Komeda, appeared on eleven albums with him, and also made contributions to all of the films scores that Komeda realized in Poland.
In 1970, Stańko joined Alex Schlippenbach’s Globe Unity Orchestra, which brought him into contact with all the key figures of the European jazz avant-garde, and also formed a quintet, with violinist Zbigniew Seifert. The following year he collaborated with Krysztof Penderecki and Don Cherry. His most important work of the 1970s, however, may have been with Finnish drummer Edward Vesala.
During the 1980s Tomasz Stanko explored many approaches to improvisation and when many Polish musicians left the country in the late eighties he kept true his roots. From his Polish homebase he went travelling to India, worked extensively with Cecil Taylor and, together with the crop of the Scandinavian scene, did recordings for ECM – amongst them the album Litania (1996).
The JazzFest Berlin 2011 edition will see an updated version of this Komeda-tribute, with members of Stańko’s ‘house band’, the Wasilewski Trio, and Joakim Milder from the original cast.