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One Man’s Jazz Show 1200th Show Special
by Maurice Hogue
This episode of One Man's Jazz marks the 1200th since its very first show at CKUW FM in Winnipeg. It moved over to taintradio.org in early 2012. One of the mantras of the show has always been that the show was about the music and the musicians who make it. I had no illusions of becoming--let along desires to be--some talking jazz head. So with that thought in mind, I decided to approach a number of artists about contributing a ...
read moreKari Ikonen, Matt Piet, Alberto Pinton & Some New Year's Eve Dancin’
by Maurice Hogue
Faced with a New Year's Eve show, this one was extended by two hours, and the last three veered off into dancin' territory. There were some new releases sampled though. In hour one, Finnish pianist Kari Ikonen displays his considerable talents and his maqiano" for playing Arabic half-tones, on his solo excursion Impressions, Improvisations & Compositions, and Swedish multi-reedist Alberto Pinton checked in with his new All The Difference. In the second hour, you'll hear more solo piano from Matt ...
read moreKari Ikonen: Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions
by Rob Garratt
Twentieth century artists were often known to power their creative process with a jazz soundtrackJackson Pollack's frenzied brushstrokes supposedly sparked by bebop horn spurtswhile further back loftily enlightened Romantic composers often hoped to distill the essence of other mediums in their workperhaps most famously with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Jazz musicians taking sonic inspiration from the fruit of visual art may not be entirely uncommon, but for Kari Ikonen it's painterly methods, not products, which ...
read moreWind, Frost & Radiation with Kari Ikonen
by Nick Davies
This show features an interview with pianist Kari Ikonen where we discuss the strength and depth of the Finnish jazz scene as well as his recent trio's album Wind, Frost & Radiation, which is out on Ozella Music. The playlist also include lots of great new music from artists like Fred Hersch and Jessica Lauren. Playlist Fred Hersch Bristol Fog (For John Taylor)" from Live in Europe (Palmetto) 1:49 Jan Roth Herbst" from Kleinod (Sinnbus) 11:03 Jessica ...
read moreKari Ikonen: Bright and The Helsinki Suite
by John Ephland
Kari Ikonen Trio Bright Ozella Music 2013 The 40-year-old Finnish keyboardist Kari Ikonen--first heard by this reviewer in a live context in his native homeland with another, much more open and unconventional trio Slo Motive--lets his jazz chops shine, his groove glisten and his range within the music flourish with these two releases. From the first bars of Bright with his frolicking swinger Bapmgwala" it becomes apparent that Ikonen can be both lyrical and slightly ...
read moreKarikko: Variations on a Theme
by Matthew Wuethrich
Siltasali Jyväskylä, Finland November 14, 2003
Ever since bebop and its progeny hard bop, jazz compositions have been vehicles built for soloing. Composers have written relatively simple unison melodies based on some kind of chord progression, both complex and simple. With some notable exceptions, in jazz compositions form (the melody/song structure) has generally followed function (the solo). Finnish pianist Kari Ikonen is working from the opposite direction, exploring the possibilities of powerful themes for smaller jazz ...
read moreKari Ikonen: Karikko
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jazz musicians have offered up as many definitions of jazz composition" as there are notes in a John Coltrane solo. Yet the basic challenge remains: how to find the right balance between improvisation, the lifeblood of jazz, and composed structures. Kari Ikonen, on his Fiasko Records debut Karikko, artfully answers this challenge with a set of organic, graceful compositions in which one cannot tell where his composing ends and improvising begins. He uses spare instrumentation to create an expansive sound, ...
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