Aniida Versala

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Iro Haarla Ouranos Quartet, featuring Aija Puurtinen: Under the Firmament

by Dan McClenaghan
January 18, 2025

Finnish pianist Iro Haala has a gift for assembling superb jazz ensembles. Her on-record successes--including Kolibri (TUM Records, 2015) and Vespers (ECM Records, 2011)--are brought together, in part, by “considering the chosen musicians' Individualism and soloistic assurance." Duke Ellington did that. So did Charles Mingus. Forming a combination of different personalities, adept at music and possessing artistic souls, then channeling the collective into a quest for excellence gives the finished product the potential to breathe, to become a living and ...