TOMASZ STAŃKO — December Avenue (review)

TOMASZ STAŃKO — December Avenue album cover Album · 2017 · Post-Fusion Contemporary Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Steve Wyzard
LAST CALL

By the time December Avenue was released in 2017, trumpeter Tomasz Stanko had only a little over a year left to live. After helping to revitalize the ECM label in the early 2000's, this album proved to be his final release. While the classic Stanko trademarks can be found throughout in abundance, do not expect this to be a "last-will-and-testament" album. If anything, Stanko's passing places a poignant shadow of unfulfilled promise over this music, as the ensemble exceedingly demonstrates they were far from done.

Bassist Reuben Rogers has replaced Thomas Morgan, but otherwise both David Virelles (keyboards) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) return from 2013's Wislawa album. All 12 tracks include copious space for both soloing and improvising. Three of the 12 ("Burning Hot", "December Avenue", and "Yankiels Lid") are driven by vigorous Rogers basslines, with Stanko and Virelles playing brightly and clangorously together. The other nine are impressionistic, incantatory, melancholy Stanko compositions that never cease to surprise. On "Bright Moon", a fluttering trumpet resounds above haunted drum rolls, while "Young Girl in Flower" is a little too busy to be a peaceful closer. Don't miss the sudden piano explosion in "Sound Space" or Rogers's arco performance in "The Street of Crocodiles".

You may not be blown away when you first hear December Avenue, but don't give up: it has much to offer over repeated listens. And while it will naturally be compared to 21st century masterpieces like Suspended Night (2004) or Soul of Things (2002), this is very much a different work that stands completely on its own. At 64:23, it's shorter than previous Stanko ECM albums, but loses nothing by being so. Those looking for a "crowning achievement" album may be disappointed, for it's nothing more or less than Stanko doing what he does best. That this is regretfully the last album makes December Avenue all that much more memorable and cherished.
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