Tomasz Stanko Publicity picture

Peter Bacon reports:

The death has been announced of the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. He was 76 and had been suffering from lung cancer. He died earlier today in a hospital in Warsaw.

Stanko made his debut in the late 1950s in Krakow, according to a Reuters news story, and became a major player on the Polish jazz scene. He played with pianist Adam Makowicz and violinist Zbigniew Seifert among many others, and also collaborated with classical composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

He developed a global reputation relatively late in his career with the release of his 1997 album Litania, a tribute to Polish film composer Krzystof Komeda, of whose 1960s Quintet he had been a vital member.

This, like many of his subsequent albums, was released on the ECM label. Like one of his stylistic influences, Miles Davis, he was a mentor to young musicians, and the trio of pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewiscz went on to a career of their own after recording and touring with Stanko in the early 2000s.

Violinist Michal Urbaniak, another of Stanko’s musical collaborators,  told Reuters: “I am in shock… (Stanko) was an absolute prophet, a great musician, and a consistent one.”

Here he is introducing his 2017 New York Quartet album, December Avenue: