Poland’s visionary jazz trumpeter Stanko passes away: public radio

Polish trumpet virtuoso Tomasz Stanko died on Sunday at the age of 76, Polish public radio announced in a report citing the artist’s daughter.

A seminal figure in European jazz, the veteran trumpeter was one of the stalwarts of prestigious German jazz disc house ECM and regularly toured the world.

Born in Rzeszow in southeast Poland, Stanko filled concert halls to capacity across the US and Europe.

He belonged to a generation of Polish jazzmen who embraced the music form in the 1960s, thanks notably to broadcasts on Voice of America radio.

“To my mind, everything began with modern jazz: Miles Davis, John Coltrane Chet Baker,” Stanko told AFP in 2005.

After hearing his idols, he traded in his piano and violin for a trumpet.

“At the time, I was steeped in existentialism, French new wave cinema and Italian neo-realism, art, books by Faulkner and Joyce, Parisian ‘bohemia’... they all inspired me.”

He became known for creating darkly atmospheric soundscapes that contained surging bursts of rhythmic music.

“Everything inspires me, be it the music of Poland, Turkey, North Africa, Jamaica or Portugal, anywhere,” Stanko told AFP.

He was the first winner of the European Jazz Prize from the Austrian Music Office in 2002.

In 2013, the French Academy of Jazz awarded him its coveted Prix du Musicien Europeen.