For years, fans of Poland’s Marcin Wasilewski Trio have been asking for a live album. The group made this one “by accident”, unaware that their August 2016 performance at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp had been recorded by the festival.

On listening, they felt that it captured the soul of things rather well, “maybe because there was no awareness of playing to the microphone”. Unselfconsciously dynamic and outgoing, the trio draws an enthusiastic response from the audience. “Being out in front of an audience of 4,000 doesn’t change your playing or your skills,” Wasilewski reflects, “but with a crowd of this size you have to project more energy. You can hear that in this recording.”

The trio is certainly in energetic, extroverted mode, fanning the flames of their ‘Spark of Life’ repertoire and drawing on the deep understanding Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz have established in the course of a quarter century of shared musical endeavour. As Jazz Journal has noted, “Wasilewski’s music celebrates a vast dynamic range, from the most deftly struck pianistic delicacies to gloriously intense emotional exuberance, the chords pounded with unrestrained joy, yet always within a marvellously melodic concept.”

Personnel: Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Slawomir Kurkiewicz (double bass), Michal Miskiewicz (drums)