Recent Jazz Articles

Dave Liebman with the Andy Emler Trio April Jazz Festival Louhisali Tapiola Helsinki, Finland April 24, 2013

Saxophonist Dave Liebman is known to have played the length and breadth of the jazz world, on both sides of the Atlantic, in both hemispheres, and, having done so for nearly 50 years, it ...

European Saxophone Ensemble Koko Jazz Club Helsinki, Finland October 9, 2012 For want of a better explanation, some great gigs really do just happen--the place, the people, the acoustics, even the weather conspiring to make the program truly fantastic as well as fitting. And on Wednesday night, October 9, down at the Koko ...

Bill Frisell Helsinki Festival Helsinki, FInland August 29, 2012

It's hard to find a summer festival that is not critically dependent on the weather for that essential vibe. As such, August's Helsinki Festival stands as good a chance as any for success, with the main stage located a half-mile from the central station ...

Flow Festival in Finland Suvilahti, Helsinki August 10-12, 2012

Every music festival worth its salt can boast something different from the others, where it's the performers, participants, legacy or location. Helsinki's Flow Festival, always held on the last official weekend of summer before schools restart, has established itself, in its nine years of existence, ...

Pori Jazz Festival uLTRA mUSIC nIGHTS Pori, Finland July 19-21, 2012

On a scale of 1-10, summertime activity in the capital of this northerly European nation barely registers a “1," whilst in the normally sleepy western coastal town of Pori it is topping out for the penultimate week of July. It's the ...

Sun Trio Laulumiehet Restaurant Helsinki, Finland May 22, 2012 We never really listen to music with only our ears; even in a dark room, lying back with headphones, our mind fills with images, sensations and other paraphernalia. Similarly, seeing Sun Trio perform in the hallowed surroundings of Helsinki's Laulumiehet Restaurant, it was impossible ...

Suunta: An Exploration of Image and Imagination. Helsinki Music Center Helsinki, Finland April 18, 2012

The very title of this project suggests that it is more than just a concert put together by three jobbing musicians, a musical experience with higher goals than just entertainment. The name of the ensemble, ...

Kallio Slaaki Kanneltalo Helsinki, Finland April 12, 2012

In spring 1973 the Prince of Psychedelia, Daevid Allen, invited his adulatory and, quite likely, addlepated audience to follow his band Gong as they ventured on their journey “Down the Oily Way," a euphemism for a trip as mystical as it was musical. In ...

Herd Trio Koko Jazz Club Helsinki, Finland March 29, 2012

With their emergence onto the Finnish scene in 2009 in the national competition for the Nordic Jazz Comets award (won that year by the Icelandic Ingemar Andersen Quartet) the Herd trio have been making waves in northern waters ever since. This gig, ...

MeTaL-o-PHoNe with Aki Rissanen Kanneltalo Helsinki, Finland March 14, 2012

Winter in most Scandinavian countries can be a grueling protracted experience, with snow lingering on the streets into May. The conditions in Helsinki's concrete suburb of Kannelmäki in mid-March are witness to the first stage of its retreat, the huge mounds piled along ...

Marc Ducret Solo Malmintalo Helsinki, Finland Jaunary 29, 2012

A solo performance is by definition an intense experience, and when the musician is committed to a style which is itself close to impenetrable the result can be bewildering; in this case a performance is bound only by the resourcefulness of the audience.

Those ...

Peloton The Cable Factory Helsinki, Finland November 2011--January 2012 January 8, 2012

Many a gigging musician has spent lengthy formative hours in an opera house pit, a symphony orchestra stand or, in this case, under the modern equivalent of a big top. With contemporary circus entertainment more compact--even low key ...

Pipoka Trio with Sam Huber Rytmihairioklubi Helsinki, Finland December 7, 2011

For a band with a name as simple as it is impenetrable, Pipoka embodies all that is exciting yet daunting in modern Finnish jazz. Its two founding members, accordionist Veli Kujala and guitarist Jarmo Julkinen, have now found a stable source of ...

Oddarrang Louhisali Espoo, Finland November 18, 2011

Finnish drummer Olavi Louhivuori and his band Oddarrang returned to the stage with the sparse chamber-style jazz from their second album in the elegant setting of Espoo's Cultural Center, just outside Helsinki. As expected from a group whose debut album was released four years previously, and ...