Tomasz Stanko 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 Krzystof Komeda's quintet the following year. Stanko has acknowledged that much of his subsequent musical direction and his own compositional style was influenced by Komeda. "The lyricism, the feeling of playing only the essential, the approach to structure, to asymmetry, many harmonic details. I was so lucky that I started out with him." Stanko 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.
Spring 2005 brought the Tomasz Stanko Quartet to USA and Canada for its third North American tour. It started with four night at NYC's legendary Birdland and continued through twelve major cities on both coasts and most prestigious venues such as Washington DC's Blues Alley, Chicago's Hothouse, Seattle's Triple Door, LA's Jazz Bakery, and Oakland's Yoshi's. All those houses ware sold out, many of them had presented Stanko before and invited him to come and play again.
ECM Records - The official webservice of the Munich based ECM Records, a record company of world-wide fame, established by its sole producer Manfred Eicher in 1969. Tomasz Stańko has recorded for ECM since 1976 "Balladyna", followed by "Matka Joanna" (1995), "Leosia" (1997), "Litania - The Music of Krzysztof Komeda" (1997), "From the Green Hill" (1999), "Soul of Things" (2002), "Suspended Night" (2004) "Selected Recordings - :rarum XVII (2004). Stańko's new ECM release is scheduled for Spring 2006.
Tomasz Stańko has worked together with Mariusz Wilczyński, an animated films' producer/director/art director, graphic/artist/designer, and theatrical set designer, in production of "From the Green Hill" (1999) (animated video for the title song of Stańko's famous album), "Szop, szop, szop, szopę" (1999), and "Niestety" (2004).
Jazz and its environs. Special thnx for the Tomasz Stańko discography, compiled by and displayed here courtesy of diapazon.pl.
The website of JazzForum, Poland's leading monthly jazz magazine.
Joanna Stańko, a painter, graphic/artist/designer.
Andrzej Tyszko, an artistic photographer. He photographs Tomasz Stańko since 1982. An author of most of the pictures on this web.
mamastudio is an independent graphic studio that designed this site.