Beauty is a word that recurs most often in Jakob Bro’s Returnings album reviews. This is one of the best-rated releases in this guitarist’s work, showing the world in a magical frame and in slow motion. The subtle sophistication of this image and refined details are as if borrowed from the definition of the thread presented for years by the cult ECM label, of which Bro is one of the leading representatives today. Five years after its release, is Returnings still the same music? Yes and no.

The project known from the album will be presented by a stellar trio. From the line-up that recorded the album, apart from the leader, we will see in Wrocław the doyenof Danish jazz, trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. The drums will be played by the legendary Marilyn Mazur, a grandmaster of sound space management, who, while not a conventional drummer herself, is responsible not so much for the rhythm as for the original timbres. There will be no double bass, which was present at the recording sessions. However, this does not feel like a shortage but like new possibilities – in the case of intimate compositions by Jakob Bro, each sound is of great importance and played live will have even more space to resonate. Performed by the three sosensitive artists, Returnings’ repertoire will gain even greater clarity. 

Biographies of both Mazur and Mikkelborg usually begin with a mention of their collaboration with Miles Davis. Jakob Bro, as a representative of the younger generation, could not play with Davis, but his dossier abounds in collaborators whose names are characterized by the power of attracting audiences. It is enough to mention such giants as Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian or Joe Lovano. It is worth mentioning that Bro, as a thirty-year-old was a member of the last international bands of another world-famous jazzman – Tomasz Stańko. The album Dark Eyes and memories from joint tours date from this period. Mikkelborg also has an episode of cooperation with Stańko to his credit – in 1977 they built a unique musical world together on the outstanding Edward Vesala’s Satu album.