Jazz Articles about Iro Haarla

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Iro Haarla: Northbound

by Budd Kopman
May 2, 2006

Beauty can mean many different things, but in my view of music, the concept centers around euphony, construction and the listener's emotional response. Consonant intervals, melodic lines that have internal logic, chord progressions that create and release tension, and timbres that blend together all work toward the beautiful. Add to this the mental imagery that some music can engender and you have the possibility of a totally engulfing experience. Northbound can easily be placed among the most ...

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Iro Haarla: Northbound

by Chris May
March 24, 2006

During the 1980s and '90s, Iro Haarla was content to keep away from the limelight and act as the generally unacknowledged inner architect of the music of her husband, drummer Edward Vesala, and his Sound & Fury group. Haarla met Vesala shortly after leaving Helsinki's Sibelius Academy in 1978, and until his death in 1999 she channeled her own musical talents into bringing shape and structure to her husband's brilliant but largely intuitive ideas.

Haarla made telling performance contributions to ...

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Iro Haarla: Northbound

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 26, 2006

Sarà forse necessario, prima o poi, definire meglio e con precisione il famoso “stile ECM”, tanto noto e riconoscibile, quanto descritto in termini per lo più vaghi e in genere non sufficienti a definirne i tratti caratteristici (come del resto avviene per altri stilemi della musica improvvisata, o jazzistica che dir si voglia, come i riferimenti alla musica afroamericana, allo swing e al blues). Perché non c’è dubbio che i lavori dell’etichetta di Manfred Eicher abbiamo un’aria di famiglia, che ...

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Iro Haarla: Northbound

by John Kelman
February 8, 2006

Iro Haarla may not be particularly well-known, but the Finnish pianist/harpist's influence has been felt by anyone familiar with the work of her late husband, drummer Edward Vesala. According to saxophonist Trygve Seim--who not only played with Vesala towards the end of his life, but is also part of Haarla's quintet on her ECM debut, Northbound--Haarla was an uncredited co-composer on many of Vesala's compositions.

If one compares Satu (ECM, 1977) with Lumi (ECM, 1987), Vesala's first collaboration with Haarla, ...