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Verneri Pohjola: The Dead Don't Dream
by Ian Patterson
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. ...
read moreVerneri Pohjola: Pekka
by Friedrich Kunzmann
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 ...
read moreVerneri Pohjola: Pekka
by Roger Farbey
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 ...
read moreVerneri Pohjola: Pekka
by Karl Ackermann
Finnish multi-instrumentalist Pekka Pohjola was a classically trained pianist and violinist but known best as a bassist in his native country. The proponent of a unique fusion of jazz, progressive rock and classical music, his work had elements of Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Antonín Dvořák, sometimes all within a single composition. Pohjola died while only in his fifties, somewhat distanced from his family by a life on the road. His son, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, has been building his own ...
read moreVerneri Pohjola: Bullhorn
by Ian Patterson
Finnish trumpeter Verneri Pohjola has earned his stripes in collaborations with Quintessence, the Ilmiliekki Quartet, UMO--the country's leading big-band--and Black Motor, with whom he recorded the sizzling Rubidium (TUM Records, 2013). It's as a leader, however, with Aurora (ACT Music, 2009)--voted Finish jazz album of the year--and Ancient History (ACT Music, 2012) that he's begun to garner greater international renown. With those two albums, alongside pianist Aki Rissanen and bassist Antti Lötjönen, Pohjola formed the nucleus of his ...
read moreVerneri Pohjola: Bullhorn
by Roger Farbey
Trumpeter Verneri Pohjola's third album as leader manages to succeed on several different levels. The opener, “Another Day" captures the listener's attention with plangent piano chords and a soaring trumpet theme. “Girls Of Costa Rica" is a paean to Miles Davis' “Filles De Kilimanjaro," the first few bars echoing (but not entirely copying) the start of that most famous track, but then departing down a different road, underpinned by an obligato bass line and satisfyingly augmented by Jussi ...
read moreJazz Finland Festival / European Jazz Conference 2014
by Ian Patterson
Jazz Finland Festival/European Jazz Conference Hotel Crowne Plaza/Various Venues jny: Helsinki, Finland September 18-21, 2014 When the steamship RMS Andania docked in the port of Helsinki in 1926 it unloaded more than just cargo. The American jazz group the Andania Yankees that disembarked stayed for two months and effectively kick-started jazz in the Finnish capital. Today, Finnish jazz is in rude health and it was the mission of the Finnish Jazz Federation to showcase ...
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