account
basket
Challenge Records Int. Logo
"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche

His trumpet’s one and only sound may be heard at the most prestigious venues throughout the world and on records produced and released by renowned, Munich-based ECM Records.

He debuted at the end of the 1950s in Krakow. Joachim Ernst Berendt considered him the first free-jazz trumpeter in Europe. In the 1960s Stanko joined Krzysztof Komeda’s quintet, soon became its mainstay, and recorded with it a masterpiece of European jazz, LP Astigmatic.

In the early 1970s, at the helm of Tomasz Stanko Quintet, he came to the forefront of the free jazz scene and was featured at major European festivals. His subsequent projects reinforced this stature: Unit with Polish pianist Adam Makowicz, and quartet co-led with Norwegian drummer Edward Vesala that in 1975 attracted attention of ECM’s Manfred Eicher. Stanko’s ECM debut, Balladyna, has become a legend on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. In the 1980s Stanko was enlisted by Cecil Taylor to his line-ups, and led his own C.O.C.X. and Freelectronic bands that incorporated reggae, Latino, electronic, and rap inspirations.