Nate Chinen on Tomasz Stanko

"Melancholia comes naturally to the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. Over the last decade, especially, during a late-career renaissance — Mr. Stanko, a pioneering figure in European jazz, is now 67 — he has distilled his art into a tersely controlled expression of sorrow. His dark-hued trumpet tone reveals itself in murmurs; he often begins a note with sibilant shooshes of air. He can make a straightforward melody feel confidential, guarded. His lyricism inhabits a haunting calm and produces a somber beauty. … [H]e’s on tour with the young quintet that appears on his new album, 'Dark Eyes' (ECM). It’s a departure from the group he led through most of the last decade, which featured an excellent acoustic rhythm section now independently working as the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. Mr. Stanko’s new band has an electric guitarist and a bassist, both Danish, along with an acoustic pianist and a drummer, both Finnish. Its sound is denser, more plangent and textured, more given to droning groove. 'Grand Central' … showed the strengths of this approach. Mr. Stanko projected a syncopated line over the rumble of piano and bass guitar" ("Jazz Tinged with Sorrow as Well as Somber Beauty," New York Times, 4/15/10).