Reviews

An important account of the work of a major musician.
The Wire

Brilliantly translated by Halina Maria Boniszewska—who did a similarly admirable job with Magdalena Grzebalkowska's Komeda: A Private Life in Jazz (Equinox Publishing, 2021)—Desperado... is an eye-opening portrait of Stańko the man and a revelatory insight into the drivers—emotional, intellectual and aesthetic—behind one of modern jazz's most enigmatic and influential figures.
All About Jazz

Reviews of the Polish Edition:

Until I picked up this autobiography my favourite thriller was the film Elevator to the Scaffold. Because that too has wild love, wild passion and a wonderful unpredictable screenwriter that we call fate. And towering above it all, we have the heavenly Miles. Now that I've plunged into the story of Tomasz Stańko's life, wherever I turn it's exactly the same.
Kuba Wojewódzki

Interviewing Tomasz Stańko, Rafał Księżyk is the right person in the right place – a competent, indeed equal partner for a discussion on music, since it is the subject-matter relating to creativity that is the most interesting aspect of this book. It is the passages where Stańko links evolutionism to improvisation, and also his discussions on place and meaning and the confines thereof in jazz (and beyond it) that are the most interesting passages in Desperado... there is also much to admire in his stories about celebrities which often end in the traditional jazz compliment: 'He was a great cat.
Bartek Chaciński in Polityka

Stańko speaks as he plays. His phrasing is a little dirty, but honest and poignant. The fascinating confessions of one of the greatest Polish artists.
Doroto Subbotko