Birthday Toast for Tomasz Stańko || BEFORE

A Birthday Toast to Tomasz Stańko || BEFORE

Before the main celebration of Tomasz Stańko's birthday, we invite you to three evenings of concerts, featuring artists representing different generations and musical aesthetics. This is a unique opportunity to experience music inspired by the spirit of freedom, improvisation, and the constant search for new sounds – values ​​that guided Tomasz Stańko throughout his life.

July 5, 2026 | 7:00 PM
Rzeszów Cellars
Kuba Banaszek ft. Marcin Elszkowski - "Tomasz Stańko: Recaptured"

Practical information: open event, free admission, unnumbered seats
Accessibility: architecturally accessible venue, accessible restrooms, elevator to the left of the entrance door, baby changing table in the accessible restroom, free earplugs at the ticket office.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the work of one of Poland's most distinguished jazz musicians. Three days of concerts will serve as a musical prologue to a birthday toast to an artist whose work has become a permanent part of the history of world jazz.

Kuba Banaszek ft. Marcin Elszkowski - Tomasz Stańko: Recaptured 

The “Tomasz Stańko: Recaptured” project is an original attempt to reinterpret the music of Tomasz Stańko—one of the most outstanding figures in European jazz. The band’s starting point is a selection of the trumpeter’s compositions, reinterpreted through the lens of Banaszek’s trio and juxtaposed with original pieces inspired by Stańko’s aesthetic and musical philosophy.

Project leader Kuba Banaszek, together with his trio, creates a space based on openness, intuition, and attentive harmony. The idea of ensemble dialogue—so central to Tomasz Stańko’s music—becomes the narrative axis here; spontaneity, the tension of the moment, and the collective shaping of form remain just as important as the composition itself. The trio’s characteristic acoustic sound, with its subtle nuances, allows for a fresh perspective on the repertoire, while preserving the emotional intensity and spaciousness associated with the trumpeter’s work.

Marcin Elszkowski has been invited to join the project—one of the most distinctive representatives of the young generation of Polish jazz trumpeters, a winner of numerous competitions, and a co-founder of many highly regarded ensembles on the contemporary improvised music scene, including Superminimalism, the Michał Aftyka Quintet, and the Grzegorz Ziółek Quartet. His sensitivity to sound and openness to improvisation fit naturally into the project’s musical language.

The band consists of:

• Kuba Banaszek – piano,
• Alan Wykpisz – double bass,
• Maksymilian Olszewski – drums,
• Marcin Elszkowski – trumpet.

“Tomasz Stańko: Recaptured” is not an attempt at reconstruction or stylistic imitation. It is a project inspired by the artistic courage, freedom of improvisation, and emotional truth that formed the foundation of Tomasz Stańko’s work.