Balladyna

Trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s music is conducive to contemplation, even when kicking up flames. This is nowhere truer than on 1976’s Balladyna, his first recording for ECM. Sharing breathing room with saxophonist Tomasz Szukalski, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Edward Vesala, he belts out some of his deepest grooves, including the no-holds-barred “First Song.” From there, the band goes from raw to cooked in under 40 minutes, ecstatically turning up the heat until the smell is too alluring not to savor again, one morsel at a time.