Meanwhile, on another continent

Also noted, in brief:

The new Tomasz Stanko jazz album, Dark Eyes, seems to be performing exceedingly well. On the pop charts. The following piece of intriguing information is to be found on the ECM Records site:

“Tomasz Stanko’s newest recording “Dark Eyes” seems set to become one of the most popular recordings of the trumpeter’s long career. In his Polish homeland, it is already a major hit, soaring in the second week of release into the upper reaches of the pop charts. “Dark Eyes” is currently lodged at # 6, several positions ahead of, for instance, Barbra Streisand, Madonna and the late Michael Jackson.”

Surprising, to say the least, bearing in mind that its a jazz album. And not the watered down, overhyped, talkshow host-fuelled jazz of Melody Gardot. Dark eyes is by no means an easy listener, even if it lacks some of the more arcane moments of his past recordings.

Does this spring some new direction for the folk of Poland then? A country where the women are overwomenly and the men all look like thugs? One but dares to hope. The only thing that can be concluded with any level of statistical truth is that the cd-buying audience in the major Polish cities certainly seems to be far demanding than those in their European counterparts. Good enough, I suppose.

Tomasz Stanko at Last.FM
Tomasz Stanko’s “Dark Eyes” at Spotify
Tomasz Stankos Website (english version)
Background on “Dark Eyes” via ECM Records