Sharp Sounds & Dirty Quotes From Tomasz Stańko

small , Sharp Sounds & Dirty Quotes from Tomasz Stańko , Tomasz Stańko, Warsaw, 1987, photo: Piotr Kłosek / FOTONOVA / East News , full_stanko_tomasz_east_news_123_770.jpg

Sex, drugs and jazz: such was the life of this eccentrically clothed desperado, with his iconic albums and near-death experiences, split between New York and Europe. He flirted with pop culture, rocked the Taj Mahal and transitioned from free jazz to become one of ECM's best musicians. These quotes tell all about the one and only Tomasz Stańko.

Tomasz Stańko was by far the most accomplished Polish jazz musician. Throughout his incredible career, he recorded cult albums, remained present for years in the top ten of Downbeat’s annual critics poll, and was an active musician for over 50 years. In addition to being the jazz giant of the modern age, he also had an incredibly interesting and controversial personality. Polish Jazz Enters a New Decade

A unique virtuoso or an anti-virtuoso?

Jazz trumpet is a specialisation usually associated with the dazzling solos of inhumanly skilled virtuosos. Meanwhile, Stańko did everything artistically possible to be the opposite of that. Instead of playing higher and faster, he devoted his life to creating a distinctive, raw sound and an intricate way of improvising – lyrical and romantic, but full of internal tension.

What I basically do all the time is improvising. I hate fighting, but I am often forced to. I know everybody is, because rivalry is what gives humanity its foundation, and I don’t want to be judgemental about it. Sometimes, it seems that it justifies our existence. We are, because rivalry causes natural selection; we become faster, better. When I have no choice, I take my hatchet and fucking beat up everybody around, but I don’t like it. I prefer to step aside, to go around instead of attacking frontally. I use coincidence. When something blocks my path, I start improvising on how to skirt it round, and I usually find the solution that I would have never come up with if I had fought. Just like using my own mistakes. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

Improvisation is all about making a mistake and not even trying to correct it, because you know it’s already too late. If you were a composer, you would correct it – but as an improviser, you can only justify it! Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

Sometimes I wonder: why do people appreciate me so much despite all of my limitations? And then I find out that this is why. People love pure virtuosity; you see how Chick Corea or Leszek Możdżer [the most popular jazz Polish piano virtuoso] are applauded, but people also love when somebody is above that. They go crazy about Thelonious Monk, who didn’t know much about piano technique. There is greatness and power in infirmity. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

Just like Thelonious, Stańko managed to reforge his lack of insanely fast fingers into a dominance of musicality, creativity, musical personality and originality.

The life of a devil

standardowy [760 px] Tomasz Stańko, Stockholm (Szwecja), 1991, photo: Woody Ochnio / Forum full_stanko_tomasz_forum_770.jpg

An important part of Tomasz Stańko’s artistic image was his openness about his past drug use and chaotic, psychotic experiences. Moreover, to anti-drugs activists’ despair, Stańko often refered to his narcotic experiences as periods of high creativity and successfully dealing with his personal problems. Peter Knight Listens to Polish Jazz

Right now, I am a much better person than I had been before I started using. No doubt. I’m stronger. I have just precisely cut off all this useless hypersensitivity. How? As a result of using poisons. But it’s not about using poisons; what makes you strong is giving them up. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

And he knew what he was talking about:

I was fucked up non-stop. I felt it coming, and then I started drinking and using. Madness was upon me. I would stuff loose blocks of hashish, cigarettes, amphetamines, pills, a hip-flask into my pockets. I used to put on a headscarf, wrap it around my head and put a Peruvian hat on the top, just like Peruvian women do. That’s what I was saying: I’m a Peruvian lady! Than I could do everything, I could go on a bender for weeks… I had no brakes. It was obvious for me that I was entering an insane land, where nothing is like it is normally, where the laws are different, and I didn’t give a shit that I didn’t know those different laws. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

In 1992, after years of extreme drug and alcohol abuse, Stańko decided to get clean once and for all. And so he did.

It was obvious. I never thought of being high as my natural state, I thought more like: ‘I’m young so I’m on dope, but one day I’m gonna grow up.’ And it worked out. I decided that this was the time that hard times were coming – that I would never be able to come back from a tour and be wasted for two months, like I could during communist times. You didn’t work much under that system, everybody was a hippie. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

Luckily for Stańko, his turnaround was complete and successful.

Right know my being clean is the source of my greatest satisfaction, even greater than artistic achievements. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

standardowy [760 px] Tomasz Stańsko, fot. Michał Łepecki / Agencja Gazeta full_stanko_tomasz_ag_770.jpg

What was Stańko's music made of?

Tomasz Stańko's contemporary music therefore had few components. First of all, an aforementioned repulsion for instrumental showing-off, and his restless character, which pushed him towards extreme experiences in music and life. There is, however, one more thing that had influenced him a lot. One of Stańko’s first professional engagements was playing in a band which left their mark on the history of European jazz: the Krzysztof Komeda Quintet. Its leader was the father of Polish modern, as well as Polański’s favourite film score creator. Stańko managed to develop a mutual, almost-telepathic understanding between him and his older genius colleague, thus learning things about music which he made use of throughout his career. I’m Not Ashamed of a Single Note: A Chat with Michał Urbaniak

standardowy [760 px] Bled Jazz Festival, 1964, Yugoslavia (present day Slovenia), pictured: Tomasz Stanko , Krzysztof Komeda , Andrzej Dąbrowski & Zofia Komeda photo: Andrzej Dąbrowski / FOTONOVA / East News full_stanko_komeda_east_news_770.jpg

As a soloist of Komeda’s Quintet, Stańko recorded the most indisputably important album of Polish Jazz – Astigmatic. The lyrical romanticism and the cult of simple catchy motives, omnipresent on this record, became a permanent part of Stańko’s later works and contributed to the foundations of Stańko’s style: lyricism, reserve, a gritty sound and surprising turnarounds. Take 12: Dave Brubeck’s Unforgettable 1958 Tour of Poland

Stańko as leader: 5 must-hear albums

Soon after Komeda’s tragic death, Stańko started his own career as a bandleader – which resulted, 45 years later, in many of his albums becoming milestones of Polish and European Jazz. Five of them you should know are:

‘Music for K.’ (1970)

Stańko’s debut as a bandleader came in 1970 with Music for K. and immediately became a subject of wide interest.

Before the recording session, we played a lot as a duo with Janusz Stefański [the drummer of Stańko’s first quintet] in smaller Kraków’s jazz clubs, as a warm-up. I used to love warming up my drummers; I did the same with Edvard Vesala. A duo – where there’s nothing but time, rhythm and trumpet. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

‘TWET’ (1974)

Music for K., even if full of fury and free jazz accents, was still deeply rooted in Komeda’s vision of music. Free improvised movements were interwoven with composed themes. TWET, recorded in 1974, was Stańko’s way of approaching free jazz at its best. Jazz in the Lives & Works of Polish Writers

It was 100% improvised music. Awesome! Far-out! [...] We played for ourselves. We looked at each other, standing in a circle, even the drums weren’t separated. We had a very close contact... A moment of concentration. Music. Version accepted. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

‘Balladyna’ (1976)

Musicians usually have their breakthrough albums. For Tomasz Stańko, it was Balladyna, his first record for ECM, made with an all-star band: Dave Holland on bass, Edvard Vesala on drums and Tomasz Szukalski on tenor saxophone. Stańko Jazzes Up Europe with Wisława

It's strange. American musicians seriously appreciated this record. Jim Black told me that music on ‘Balladyna’ was shockingly cutting-edge. My worldwide brand was built on Balladyna. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

‘Witkacy/Peyotl Freelectronic’ (1988)

One of Stańko’s personal favourites in his discography and one of the few albums produced in the studio, not recorded live. Witkacy/Peyotl Freelectronic is the most electronic and funky album of Tomasz Stańko’s, with excerpts from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's psychedelic work Narcotics read by an actor. There is no word better to describe this music than freelectronic. Witkacy: The Scandalising Portrait Artist

Works on Peyotl were chaotic, manifold. Peyotl mounted up slowly. We made loops, added instruments and Walczewski’s voice [the actor who read Witkiewicz’s Narcotics]. The trumpet was recorded at the very end. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

‘Litania – Music of Krzysztof Komeda’ (1997)

After years of chaos in his private life – and after recording many expressive, demanding free jazz albums – in 1997, Tomasz Stańko decided to return to ECM and again cooperate with Manfred Eicher [the CEO, founder and creator of the style of the ECM Records]. Stańko’s first album after returning to ECM was titled Leosia [still arrhythmic free jazz], and Eicher was so pleased with the result that offered Stańko another session in the same year – a session of recording Komeda’s music. The album immediately became a world best-seller and once again made Tomasz Stańko hit international jazz headlines. Interwar Music Revivalists: The Bands & Singers Playing Polish Music of the 1920s & 1930s

One day, we listened to Komeda’s albums with Marcin Wasilewski [a young pianist of the Tomasz Stańko Quartet]. Marcin listened to it objectively, like a man from outer space, and he concluded that Komeda played best on these records. Meanwhile, Komeda didn’t appreciate his playing, and after all these years, it came out that his playing is the most pure-bred. My playing was weird, and he, the motherfucker, was a genius, playing so little. Good one. Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO Tomasz Stańko, trans. WO

Written by Wojciech Oleksiak, 16 Mar 2015

Sources: Tomasz Stańko's discography, ‘Tomasz Stańko Autobiografia - Desperado’ by Rafał Księżyk, Downbeat's Critics Annual Poll 2014, Jazz Forum Jazz Top 2014

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