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Chris Batchelor & Rob Townsend: London meets Finland at Jyv
by Matthew Wuethrich
After the relaxed polish of Charlie Mariano’s set, British horn players Rob Townsend and Chris Batchelor decided to give the audience a wake-up call. Together with three Finnish players-pianist Samuli Mikkonen, bassist Pekka Törmänen, and drummer Joonas Leppänen-they mixed up a dense brew of floating ambience, driving rhythms, focused solos and raw electronics. They generated a ...
Denis Colin Trio: Someting in Common
by Matthew Wuethrich
Art can be a bridge between cultures; it also illuminates the barriers. Music is no exception. Perhaps more than any other, the music of African-Americans has captured the world’s imagination. But what is it in the music that speaks to such a variety of people so forcefully? At first glance, the Denis Colin Trio’s Something in ...
Esa Pietil: Direct
by Matthew Wuethrich
When John Cage distilled sound into four elements-pitch, duration, timbre and loudness-he succinctly summed up many 20th century musicians’ attitudes towards music: sound itself matters more than the structure in which it resides. Cage’s approach was expressed in jazz by the '60s avant-garde. They rejected conventions like swing, bar lines and rigid solo formats in favor ...
Samuli Mikkonen + 7 Henke
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jazz Bar Jyväskylä, Finland March 2003 The best music tells stories, and the best stories captivate the audience. Composer/pianist Samuli Mikkonen and a hand-picked group of Finnish jazz veterans did just that at Jyväskylä’s Jazz Bar during the CD-release concert of his latest album, Samuli Mikkonen + 7 Henkeä. Over two hour-long ...
Samuli Mikkonen: Samuli Mikkonen+7 henke
by Matthew Wuethrich
The Austrian artist Hundertwasser once said, “The straight line is not a creative line, it is a duplicating line, an imitating line.” While listening to pianist/composer Samuli Mikkonen’s newest album, Samuli Mikkonen + 7 henkeä, Hundertwasser’s dislike of the straight line entered my thoughts, because Mikkonen’s music also avoids rigid forms. Rather than beat mechanically, his ...
Mikkonen/Jormin/Kleive: KOM-live
by Matthew Wuethrich
Recorded live in Helsinki’s KOM Theater during a 1998 Nordic tour, KOM-live offers a meditative study of emotional density and group interaction filtered through an abstract refraction of the piano trio. The group consists of three standouts from the Nordic region: pianist Samuli Mikkonen (Finland), bassist Anders Jormin (Sweden) and drummer Audun Kleive (Norway).
Samuli Mikkonen: Korpea Kuunnellessa
by Matthew Wuethrich
Pianist Samuli Mikkonen’s first album as a leader delves even deeper into the abstract shapes and reflective tempo first explored by the Mikkonen/Jormin/Kleive trio on KOM-live , also recorded in 1998. Joined this time by two other Finnish players, Uffe Krokfors on bass and Mika Kallio on drums, the mood turns darker and the focus shifts ...
UMO and Tomasz Stanko
by Matthew Wuethrich
Jumo Jazz Club Helsinki, Finland September 2002 In a concert broadcast by Finnish radio station YLE from Helsinki's Jumo Jazz Club to all of Europe, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and the Finnish big band UMO transmitted two clear messages: Stanko is one of the trumpet’s most unique voices, ...
Space is the Place: The Life and Times of Sun Ra
by Matthew Wuethrich
Sun Ra's music challenges listeners to approach it with no preconceptions of right and wrong; Sun Ra himself challenges the biographer in the same manner. Sun Ra thought in ways that run counter to how a majority of society conceives of life. To start with, how should we respond when he claims that he was not ...
Sun Ra: The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra
by Matthew Wuethrich
Sun Ra stated that he wanted to create otherworldly emotions on this album. These emotions are “disguised as jazz,” to quote one of Ra’s poems. The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, recorded in 1961, consists of a range of simmering, swinging, riffing tunes full of deft counterpoint. On the surface, these tunes show a rather restrained ...
