The labyrinthine crime novels of Michael Connelly are brilliant—set in LA, packed with gritty procedural, historical, and psychological detail, with their protagonist Harry (short, indeed, for Hieronymus) Bosch.
A tangential delight permeating the series is Bosch’s fine taste in jazz. Continuing my trumpet theme, it was through Nine Dragons (a murky Triad case) that I learned of Tomasz Stańko (1942–2018), “the Polish Miles Davis”.
The culture.pl site has several useful articles, including interviews (here, here, and on film) as well as an album guide,
To remind us of the jazz scene under state socialism (see e.g. Pickham and Ritter, Jazz behind the Iron curtain), here’s his 1970 album Music for K:
and First song live in 1976:
WOW… His ballads are great too:
His musical collaborations, with the likes of Krzysztof Komeda (notably in the 60s) and Cecil Taylor (from 1984), were fruitful. For more Stańko (notably the amazing 1965 album Astigmatic), see under Polish jazz, then and now; as well as the 2023 LJF tribute. See also Harry Bosch’s takes on Frank Morgan and Art Pepper.
Stephen Jones: a blog 
As a big Connelly fan, I rejoice in the impeccable realization on film, from delectable theme music and jazz tidbits to the perfect casting, esp of Titus Welliver (a painter’s son, be it noted) as Harry B. TW looks enough like Jeremy Denk that I get a double frisson each time I watch.
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Wow, thanks. I haven’t got round to screen versions yet—a treat in store (though it looks as if one can only view them on on subscription?). I was going more for the angle of Iron-Curtain counter-culture, but I see there are fertile connections to be made between Bosch and Marlowe, and so on…
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Yes, it’s being made by Amazon Prime. With all the other benefits of a subscription (which us old folk use a lot), it’s a pleasure to encourage them in that enterprise.
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