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Haarla, Krokfors & Paivinen: Intimate Intensity
by Matthew Wuethrich
The Finnish composer and drummer Edward Vesala once said, “If you want to make music, do it with 100% conviction or don't bother at all." As a musical setting, duets are a dangerous space: they can clearly show if a musician does not have 100% conviction, for they leave improvisers naked, both technically and emotionally. Such ...
Delirium in Concert: Dialoguing with the Ages
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jazz Bar February 19, 2004 Jyväskylä, Finland Musicians constantly dialogue with two entities: themselves and tradition. Music is rarely ever totally new, but builds on what has come before, adding extensions and responses. As the world of recorded sound grows exponentially, so grows the dialogue’s number of participants. The Finnish-Danish quartet Delirium ...
Composed Spontaneity: The Music of Kari Ikonen, Mikko Innanen and Esa Onttonen
by Matthew Wuethrich
“Music is music. You can't put it into state borders." -- Mikko Innanen Saxophonist and composer Mikko Innanen has a story that should make listeners think twice about reading too much into a performer's nationality. A Danish critic titled a recent review of an Innanen concert “Tales from Finland" and singled out his ...
Juhani Aaltonen Trio
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jazz Bar Jyväskylä, Finland October 16, 2002 The trio has always represented a certain spaciousness and abstraction in jazz: freedom of movement and promise of interaction. Playing to a full house in the newest incarnation of Jyvaskyla's Jazz Bar-after 10 years already an institution in Finland- saxophonist/flutist Juhani Aaltonen, an almost 40-year ...
Fiasko Records
by Matthew Wuethrich
In 2000, a strange, compelling creature was brought to life in Finland: Fiasko Records. You could hear its first stirrings on Gnomus , the self-titled release from the electric free-improvisation trio. This surreal live recording of completely improvised material was befitting as the beginning of a label dedicated to maintaining artistic integrity and freedom. After speaking ...
Rauhan Orkesteri: Rauhan Orkesteri
by Matthew Wuethrich
If naming a free jazz group Peace Orchestra (Rauhan Orkesteri in Finnish) seems like a contradiction, it should; free jazz has always reveled in contradiction: the established rules of melody, harmony and rhythm, the jazz tradition and images of the stereotypical jazz player have all been questioned, torn down and then recreated by those working within ...
Rolling Thunder: Live in Japan
by Matthew Wuethrich
Rolling Thunder fills its music with alternating stretches of probing improvisation and restless silence. Instead of a fire that burns, the music on Live in Japan ripples: notes are tossed into the placid silence and their waves flow outwards until they gradually dissipate at the edges of hearing. They free the listener from analyzing the music ...
Ilmiliekki Quartet: March of the Alpha Males
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jazz musicians have longed mined popular song forms. Two legends in particular – Miles Davis and Chet Baker – devoutly explored them. In his biography of Miles Davis, John Szwed ponders their interest: ”They both saw that despite the naive optimism of most pop songs, they were essentially sad; in fact, they formed a long chain ...
Triade: L'Ardu
by Matthew Wuethrich
JazzTimes writer Stuart Nicholson recently posited that appropriation has driven the development of jazz, for it draws on disparate musical sources to enrich its own vocabulary. This force has however been balanced with some constants that link one stage of development to another, and the most notable constant has been ensemble combinations. Of those combinations, perhaps ...
Raoul Bj: Shadowglow
by Matthew Wuethrich
Shadowglow, the sixth release this year from Finland’s TUM Records , plays more like a series of sound experiments than a collection of songs, and following the creative process of guitarist Raoul Björkenheim and percussionist Lukas Ligeti makes for intriguing listening. In this duo setting, both musicians let their omnivorous musical minds and vast technique wander ...
