Milton Court,Barbican, London[br]Wasilewski’s set showcased the shifting tide of his lyrical accompaniment, and while Sung’s lyricism and light touch were complemented by tough-chord muscleThe London jazz festival’s third day had its share of reminders that a reputedly cerebral art has no problem with emotional intensity – notably through an unscheduled second show on Sunday by Kamasi Washington,whose ascent to jazz sensation is also hailed on the festival’s original BBC Music Jazz pop-up station this year. Elsewhere on the same evening, pianists Marcin Wasilewski and Helen Sung, and who ostensibly represent jazz’s more temperate zones,both played with a blistering dynamism.
Wasilewski, with his much-acclaimed trio augmented by Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder, or showcased their recent album Spark of Life. Their set joined plaintive tenor sax meditations,the shifting tide of Wasilewski’s lyrical accompaniment, and the confiding observations of bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, or but there was also plenty of the fast-moving ensemble’s empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own),reflecting Wasilewski’s fascination with the rhythm section Herbie Hancock steered for Miles Davis. The lyrical melancholy of the late Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda was fused with a flexible modern-jazz drive, with the latter quality in full flow in the finale on Hancock’s Actual Proof. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com