The Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko perfectly fits the Europe theme, the leading thread that runs through this year's festival. He's indeed one of those Europeans who, influenced by Ornette Coleman, quit bebop and went on a search for his own, European identity. Music historians even claim that the band that Stanko put together in 1962 was the first European band that played free jazz. Much more important for the trumpeter was joining the band of pianist Krzystov Komeda. This Polish master-musician would have a lasting influence on Stanko. He completely owes his lyricism, harmonic concepts and sense of structure to Komeda. Those qualities go hand in glove with the musical views of ECM, the label Stanko is currently recording for. The media praised album Lontano represents his latest fruit in the ECM tree.
