May 28 2017
Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album: Marcin Wasilewski Trio – “January”
Sunday mornings are when the serenity is supposed to come down. Sunday morning is the cocoon from the heavy exhaustion of too much Saturday night fun. Sunday morning is when the city agrees to use its inside voice. Sunday morning is when a hush settles in over the land. It is a time for sitting still and listening to quiet music and silently praying the aspirin and coffee do something to stop your head from exploding. Drama and stress are strictly forbidden on Sunday morning.
Your Sunday Morning Jazz Album is just for you, for times just like these. If you possess the freakish compulsion to get-up-and-go when the clock strikes Sunday morning, this music is not for you. Go and listen to a Spotify EDM playlist or something. But whatever you decide, just do it quietly and far away from those of us who appreciate the true solemn nature of a Sunday morning.
For nearly twenty-five years, the trio of pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Sławomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michał Miśkiewicz have been concocting their own special distillation of sonic tranquility. It began back in 1993 in Koszalin, Poland as the Simple Acoustic Trio. And though they now go by their pianist’s namesake and relocated to Warsaw, it remains the same peaceful music conjured up for people who know how to spend their Sunday mornings. Their 2008 release January is the most potent example of their talent.
A rendition of Prince’s “Diamonds and Pearls” highlights the Trio’s deft use of melody, and how little bursts of melodicism sprinkled over hushed tones accentuate the quiet ambiance. And sometimes they take a different route and simply string out a melodic inspiration from first note to last, as on “Cinema Paradiso,” with the comforting murmur of bass and drums as the conversational tool to carry it through. And even when the trio puts a little hop in their step on “The Cat” or incites some dramatic tension on “Balladyna,” the music is no less soothing and no danger to the welcome stillness that has settled in over the room.
You need this album today, right now.
- Artist-Title: Marcin Wasilewski Trio – January
- Personnel: Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Sławomir Kurkiewicz (bass) and Michał Miśkiewicz (drums).
- Proper Use: 1) Nursing a hangover, 2) Early inoculation for Monday stress, 3) Piano addiction.
Released in 2008 on ECM Records.
Music from Warsaw, Poland.
Available at: Amazon
Ian
May 28, 2017 @ 1:34 pm
Great choice – I absolutely love this album, and their other ECM releases – and for me this is my standard listening, Sunday mornings or otherwise. Is this “Sunday Morning Jazz Album” going to be a regular feature? Plenty more on ECM like this of course, plus I have one or two recommendations from you already that might fit into this category and would look forward to more.
davesumner
May 28, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
This was a test run of the Sunday Morning Jazz Album. It will likely undergo some changes and, perhaps, even a change of location. However, it’s my intention to kick one of these out every Sunday morning going forward. I’ve been toying with this kind of column since the inception of this site, and it’s taken many different forms. I’m hoping the current format is the one that sticks.
And, oh yes, definitely recommend away. I’m always interested to hear what other people like and why they like it.
Cheers.
Ian
May 28, 2017 @ 2:33 pm
The recommendations I already picked up from this site that could fall into this category:
Chamber Tones Trio
Einar Scheming – Intervals
James Uhart – Sous La Lampadaire
Luke Howard & Nadje Noordhuis – Ten Sails
Rafael Karlan – The Sweetness of Things Half-Remembered
ECM albums that ease a little stress on Sunday morning (or any other day/time), generally avoiding too much heat or too high a tempo:
Anouar Brahem – The Astounding Eyes of Rita, Le Pas du Chat Noir
Colin Vallon – Rruga
Hajo Weber & Ulrich Innenbold – Winterreise (very rare but worth tracking down a digital copy)
Ralph Towner – Travel Guide
Tigran Hamasyan – Atmospheres, Luys i Luso
Wolfert Brederode – Black Ice, Currents
Others worthy of note, probably more mainstream than the standard BITW recommendations:
Jon Cowherd – Mercy (Brian Blade’s collaborator, a great album with Blade, Patitucci and Frisell)
John Ericsson – Contemplation (solo piano=, some with Steve Rodby on bass)
Fred Simon – Remember The River (also with Rodby plus Paul McCandless)
Cheers.
davesumner
May 29, 2017 @ 12:04 am
Those are some great choices. In fact, Einar Scheving and that particular Karlen recording are frequent early morning albums for me. It’s been a little while since I listened to that JVR Chambertones Trio, but I recall it fondly and it definitely fits the mood. Ralph Towner is a long-time favorite of mine for early-morning music, too.
As far as the albums I select for this series, I’m going to try to select albums I haven’t written about before. It’ll give me the opportunity to dip into the catalogs of artists that were released prior to this site opening shop at the tail-end of 2011. Of course, more recent albums just getting released or those of a more recent vintage that I just never discovered at the time will also be prime targets. And then there will be those times I just say screw it and decide to write about an old favorite, again, but this time in the context of the Sunday Morning Jazz Album.
Y’know, I’m not sure I ever really sat down with Cowherd’s Mercy. If I recall correctly, it got released on the ArtistShare platform, and while it’s a nice little system they got there, it’s kind of insular in terms of reaching out for media coverage. I’m gonna have to track that one down again and see if it jibes with my memory of it.
Cheers.