{"id":1483,"date":"2023-01-04T00:26:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2023-01-04T00:26:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:26:36","slug":"masters-of-jazz-trumpet-stanko-sobczak-sandoval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.justsheetmusic.com\/blog\/other\/masters-of-jazz-trumpet-stanko-sobczak-sandoval\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters of Jazz Trumpet: Stanko, Sobczak, Sandoval"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"tomasz-stanko\"<\/a>

Tomasz Stanko (born July 11, 1942)<\/p><\/div>\n

Why does trumpet talent at this moment in history seem to flow to men whose surnames begin with the letter S? I don’t know. But then, I have been baffled by lesser mysteries than that!<\/p>\n

Devoted readers of this blog will surely want to know that one of these great contemporary jazz trumpeters, Tomasz Stanko<\/a>, portrayed above, has brought out a new album ( via ECM). Its name is Wislawa<\/a>, because Stanko was inspired by the writing of the great Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska<\/a>, a Nobel Prize winner of 1996 who died last year.<\/p>\n

\"Wislawa-Szymborska\"

Wislawa Szymborska<\/p><\/div>\n

Ten years ago, Stanko came out with Suspended Night<\/a>, also via ECM. Stanko was working at the time with Marcin Wasilewski on the piano, Slawamir Kurkiewicz on bass, and Michael Miskiewicz on drums. They continue to perform, now without him, as the Marcin Wasilewski Trio.<\/a><\/p>\n

As to Suspended Night<\/i>, though, the website AllMusic raved that the ensemble had developed a \u201cbravely compelling yet tonally accessible voice\u201d and that Stanko himself had a \u201cunique compositional language.\u201d Listen for yourself here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now we have Stanko\u2019s new effort, Wislawa<\/i>. Ben Ratliff, reviewing it in The New York Times<\/a>, praises its \u201csoothing melodic shapes interrupted by flutters and harder intervallic stabs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"miles-davis\"Stanko is again the leader of a quartet. He is ably supported throughout Wislawa<\/i> by Gerald Cleaver on the drums, Thomas Morgan on bass, and David Virelles on piano. The style of the quartet reminds Ratliff of Miles Davis<\/a>, and of Davis\u2019 1959 studio album, Kind of Blue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not only high praise; it is a common attribution of influence: many critics have heard Davis<\/a> in Stanko.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Edmund Sobczak<\/h3>\n
\"edmund-sobczak\"

Edmund Sobczak<\/p><\/div>\n

Sobczak is somewhat better known by his stage name \u201cEDolutionary\u201d than by his given and surnames. As the stage name suggests, Sobczak \u2013 an alum of the University of Music in Poznan, Poland, who now lives in Oxford, in Britain \u2013 believes that his music represents a new stage in the development\/evolution of jazz.<\/p>\n

His debut album, One Step Ahead<\/i> was released in December 2010. It was followed by The Soundtrack <\/i>(January 2012) and most recently by Epic Film Music<\/i> (December 2012).<\/p>\n

Interviewed for the website All About Jazz<\/a>, Sobczak said that his music reflects the influence of \u201ceveryone I\u2019ve ever heard,\u201d including Davis, Sandoval, Wynton Marsalis,<\/a> Michel Camilo, and Chris Botti.<\/p>\n

Experimentation, a pressing of the boundaries, is critical he says, otherwise \u201cwe would all still play and compose like Mozart<\/a>. As much as I respect Mozart, I\u2019m glad we moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"trumpets-old\"<\/a>Seconding that thought, I propose that jazz, and trumpet based jazz, be considered just as mutable as civilization itself. After all, the instrument is as old. People have been re-working the trumpet and its sound, since long<\/b> before Mozart. Instruments recognizably trumpet-like were employed in the days of the Oxus civilization [central Asia, circa 3500 BC<\/a>]. Some of the finds are portrayed in the chart below.<\/p>\n

Arturo Sandoval<\/h3>\n

\"Dizzie-Gillespie\"But to return to the 21st<\/sup> century Anno Domino, I\u2019ll complete this triptych of contemporary trumpeters with Arturo Sandoval<\/a>, who\u2019s latest CD; Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You) <\/i>pays tribute to Dizzie Gillespie.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sandoval is a native of Cuba. He met Gillespie, his hero, in 1977 and they played together in concerts in both Cuba and Europe. Sandoval defected to the US in 1990 while on tour. Gillespie died in 1993. Sandoval became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in \u201999.<\/p>\n

\"Arturo-Sandoval\"

Arturo Sandoval (born November 6, 1949)<\/p><\/div>\n

Dear Diz, <\/i>released through the Concord Jazz label, <\/i>got to number nine <\/i>on Billboard\u2019s Top Jazz Albums<\/a> chart in late 2012 and early 2013. It has also won Sandoval a Grammy.<\/p>\n

Going back just a year and a half, here is a clip of a performance of Sandoval with the US Air Force Band, performing, A Night in Tunisia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"tunisia-flag\"A Night in Tunisia<\/i>, as a song, though it was surely unknown to the Oxus civilization, has a lot of history behind it. Cole Porter<\/a> composed A Night in Tunisia<\/i> in 1942, and it was first sung by Sarah Vaughan<\/a>. Among the great artists who did it before Sandoval \u2026 Miles Davis, Charlie Parker<\/a>, and \u2026 Dizzy Gillespie. The song became a signature of the bebop crowd<\/a>. It\u2019s a tune that has, for western audiences anyway, just the right touch of the exotic, and one that opens itself to a variety of interpretations.<\/p>\n

Listening to Sandoval\u2019s interpretation in the above clip will give you a quick sense of range his horn has in his hands \u2013 it can sound like a tuba or like a piccolo, with never a slackening of control.<\/p>\n

So let us keep the trumpet in our thoughts. Without this ago-old instrument, it seems unlikely that jazz would ever have developed as the great musical genre we know. And, as these three gentlemen each in his own way proves, both jazz and the trumpet remain at the cutting edge of musical development.<\/p>\n

It is worthy of remark, too, that none of the three gentlemen discussed in this column was born in the United States: our three masters of the trumpet consist of two Poles and a Cuban. Yes, jazz as a musical genre is a gift that the US has given to the world, but the rest of the world can manufacture the stuff at the very highest level.<\/p>\n

Let us conclude with Sobczak, and what he calls his \u201cUntold Story.\u201d<\/p>\n