Marcin Wasilewski Trio

The fourth ECM album from the Marcin Wasilewski Trio adds a special guest, the lyrical Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder, whom the Polish band came to know through live performances with Tomasz Stanko’s Litania project. Amongst other affinities, the players share a love of Krzysztof Komeda’s themes, and “Sleep Safe and Warm” written for Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, makes a welcome reappearance here. Milder played the theme with Stanko on the Litania recording in 1997. Two years earlier the Wasilewski Trio (or the Simple Acoustic Trio, as they were then known) featured it on their very first album, Komeda. “Wasilewski is a sensitive, bittersweet romantic,” opined UK website Marlbank recently, “in one sense a disciple of Bill Evans, but just as much a follower of Komeda, the great Polish film composer. And it’s fitting that oneof Komeda’s most compelling melodies is included on the new album.”

On Spark Of Life, recorded in Lugano in March 2014, and produced by Manfred Eicher, the Wasilewski group balances original material – intensely melodic new tunes by Marcin (including variations of the beautiful title track), and one from Milder (the buoyant “Still”) – with an eclectic range of covers. The players embrace Herbie Hancock’s “Actual Proof” (an acoustic version of a tune very much associated with the sonorities of the Fender Rhodes), the Police’s pop hit “Message In A Bottle” (here given a robust, Tyner-ish rhythmic emphasis), “Do rycerzy, do szlachty, do mieszczan” from Polish grunge-rock group Hey, and Slawomir Kurkiewicz’s sensitive arrangement of a piece by contemporary classical composer Grazyna Bacewicz.

Throughout, the Wasilewski Trio reinforces its status as one of the most resourceful groups around.

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