Jazz Articles about Kari Ikonen

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Kari Ikonen: Karikko

by Matthew Wuethrich
July 1, 2002

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, ...