The Marcin Wasilewski Trio has been active in home country Poland since the early nineties, initially under the name Simple Acoustic Trio. The Polish trumpet player Tomasz Stańko recruited them as a permanent band and so they ended up with ECM Records, which expanded their reach worldwide. Spark Of Life is now the fourth album for this authoritative label. Special guest is the Swedish saxophonist
… Joakim Milder, who also got to know the group through Stańko. Milder's controlled playing fuses organically with the lyrical and subdued atmosphere that the group creates. Exuberant solos are out of the question, every melody seems to be saved note by note. This leads to, among other things, a coolly swinging version of Message In A Bottle (The Police) and an unctuous performance of Sleep Safe And Warm that the Polish composer Krysztof Komeda wrote for the soundtrack of Rosemary's Baby. Spark Of Life is a distinguished and fragile European jazz record. (MR)more