Jazz Articles about Verneri Pohjola

About Verneri Pohjola

Album Review

Antti Lotjonen Quintet East: ALQE

Read "ALQE" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
August 7, 2020

Bassist Antti Lötjönen is anything but a small name in the Finnish jazz cosmos. Holding down the deep frequency spectrum in some of the country's most renowned instrumental outfits, such as the electronica-infused jazz trio 3TM or the acoustic Ilmiliekki Quartet, Lötjönen has established a cunning reputation as a sideman leading up to this, his debut release as a leader with the so-called Quintet East. Accordingly high are the expectations of a musician of his caliber—expectations which are more than ...

Album Review

Sylvain Rifflet: Troubadours

Read "Troubadours" reviewed by Anthony Shaw

by Anthony Shaw
July 23, 2020

Sylvain Rifflet has been playing adventurous, somewhat rock-related jazz for since around 2000, and for much of the time has done so alongside a trumpeter. His emergence on the international scene in the first decade of this century was with the French quintet Rockingchair, where his co-leader was contemporary French trumpeter, Arielle Besson. They were awarded a 'Django d'Or' medal for their first album and subsequent releases have been well received. On the 2019 album Troubadour, Rifflet is ...

Album Review

Pauli Lyytinen Magnetia Orkesteri: Hypnosis

Read "Hypnosis" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
July 11, 2020

It can be interpreted as quite the democratic statement when an album from a saxophonist is introduced with an almost two-minute long drum solo that solely focuses on the percussive qualities of the instrument. Which is exactly what drummer Mika Kallio does on the opening segment of the Finnish saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen's sophomore album with the Magnetia Orkesteri. It doesn't take a professional translator to figure out that this quartet's name has something to with magnetism and is referred to ...

Album Review

Verneri Pohjola: The Dead Don't Dream

Read "The Dead Don't Dream" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
July 3, 2020

The photo on the front cover shows a levitating Verneri Pohjola. A rising star? That tag might have been appropriate at the time of Aurora (ACT Music, 2009), but the brilliant subsequent albums Bullhorn (2015) and Pekka (2017), both on Edition Records, confirmed the Finnish trumpeter's arrival at the top table of European jazz. Pohjola's distinctive tone--lyrical yet with a visceral edge--and his melodic improvisations and compositional flare are common to all his albums, though no two sound the same. ...

Album Review

Sylvain Rifflet: Troubadours

Read "Troubadours" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 24, 2020

In questo decennio il sassofonista Sylvain Rifflet s'è imposto tra gli emergenti più eclettici del jazz francese con dischi molto apprezzati, come l'audace Mechanics (Jazz Village 2015) e l'orchestrale Refocus (Verve 2017). In quest'ultimo ha voluto affermare la sua filiazione per Stan Getz (di cui rilegge l'album Focus) anche se la vicinanza è solo timbrica e la ricerca espressiva è ampiamente personale. In questo nuovo lavoro cambia ancora direzione e s'ispira alle musiche dei trovatori nell'Occitania del 12° ...

Album Review

Verneri Pohjola: Pekka

Read "Pekka" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
October 26, 2017

On this sophomore release with Edition Records Verneri Pohjola reinterprets the music of his late father, Pekka Pohjola. Pekka was an internationally acclaimed jazz- fusion/progressive-rock multi-instrumentalist, best known for his chops on the bass during his ventures in the 70s and 80s, collaborating, among others, with Mike Oldfield. Due to his father having been educated primarily in classical music, the compositions, while very diverse and at times Frank Zappa influenced, often integrate classical cadences that tend to allude to more ...

Album Review

Verneri Pohjola: Pekka

by Roger Farbey
May 22, 2017

The highly-anticipated follow-up to Verneri Pohjola's widely acclaimed 2015 album Bullhorn consolidates his position as Finland's foremost jazz musician. His prodigious talent is hardly surprising given that his late father was the internationally acclaimed jazz-influenced prog-rock bassist and composer Pekka Pohjola, who died in 2008 aged just 56. This album is a reworking of some of Pohjola senior's tunes, but integrated into his son's vibrant compositions. It necessarily takes a different turn from Pohjola's previous album, harnessing elements of jazz ...