December Avenue

Personnel: Tomasz Stanko (trumpet); David Virelles (piano); Reuben Rogers (double bass); Gerald Cleaver (drums).Recording information: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines (06/2016).Photographer: Caterina di Perri.Three years after Tomasz Stanko's New York Quartet issued their quietly stunning debut Wislawa, they return in slightly altered but no less inventive form. The Polish trumpeter brings back pianist David Virelles and drummer Gerald Cleaver, and welcomes new bassist Reuben Rogers, who replaces Thomas Morgan. Just as Wislawa took Polish poet and Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska as its muse, December Avenue chooses writer Bruno Schulz, another Pole, as its own. Two tracks here are in his honor, and due to their particular compositional elements, they reflect the writer's lasting influence on Stanko.December Avenue is a more deliberate outing than its predecessor, but it's also more intuitive. "Cloud," the opener, is an elliptical dialogue between Stanko and Virelles that p