MARCIN WASILEWSKI, piano
SLAWOMIR KURKIEWICZ, double-bass
MICHAL MISKIEWICZ, drums

Pianist Marcin Wasilewski, and bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz were 18 and drummer Michal Miskiewicz only 16 when Tomasz Stanko took them under his wing in 1994. They quickly developed into his band of choice for all Polish engagements, working with him on theatre and film music initially. It was through Stanko’s ECM recording Soul of Things, recorded 2001, that the wider world first had a hint of the capacity of Wasilewski/Kurkiewicz/Miskiewicz. Since then, they’ve toured widely with Stanko and contributed mightily to his quartet recordings Suspended Night and Lontano, recorded in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz built up a reputation as a unit in their own right, working under the name Simple Acoustic Trio. Now called the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, it has become one of Poland’s most popular bands, winning numerous awards in their homeland and recording five albums on local labels. Their first international release, for ECM, entitled just Trio, was recorded in 2004 and released the following year, immediately winning the Quarterly Prize of the German Record Critics. In the US, too, critics were taking notice. “Their years together have resulted in an ensemble with an utterly symbiotic creative flow,” wrote Don Heckman in the Los Angeles Times.