MW, p; Slawomir Kurkiewicz, b; Michael Miskiewicz, dr. There is no better piano trio playing today than this ensemble from Poland, led by Marcin Wasilewski. Recorded live in Antwerp in 2016, They play with their characteristic verve and intelligence to produce a set of six musical pieces, each superbly crafted and played. You won’t recognize the melodies to more than one, maybe two of the pieces. They play Sting’s “Message in a Bottle.” (They played Bjork’s “Hyperballad” on their first album.) For the rest, there’s a tune by Herbie Hancock (“Actual P roof”) which I didn’t recognize and four originals by Wasilewski, who has carried the compositional weight in this group from the beginning. The trio doesn’t sound like any other trio playing today but there are similarities to Brad Mehldau’s group, mostly in how well oiled its playing is, how well the three players mesh their parts in a seamless whole. I am especially impressed, as I have been on previous albums, with how well bassist Kurkiewicz and drummer Miskiewicz play together. There are moments when they solo separately, with the other horn providing accent or backing, but much of the time it’s a dialogue, both rolling out their stuff together and yet never falling out of sync. It takes good ears and a long time playing together to get this type of interactive precision. I admire too how propulsive their music is. The drumming is busy and always changing, but it’s never intrusive: the music moves ahead like a modern analog to the rhythm section of the Basie band of the early ‘40s, which is high praise. I don’t know if I like this album better than their earlier albums. I like them –a lot!-- and this one is just as good as the earlier ones were. Jazz is alive and well in Poland as long as players like this are around.
