Home » Search Center » Results: Nordic Sounds
Results for "Nordic Sounds"
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 ...
Karikko: Variations on a Theme
by Matthew Wuethrich
Siltasali Jyväskylä, Finland November 14, 2003 Ever since bebop and its progeny hard bop, jazz compositions have been vehicles built for soloing. Composers have written relatively simple unison melodies based on some kind of chord progression, both complex and simple. With some notable exceptions, in jazz compositions form (the melody/song structure) has ...
Tampere Jazz Happening 2003: Speaking a Universal Language
by Matthew Wuethrich
On a Saturday afternoon a group of music journalists gather at the 22nd Tampere Jazz Happening to debate “the changing face of jazz,” a lofty title for an unwieldy subject. JazzTimes writer Stuart Nicholson makes the opening remarks, summing up jazz’s history as one of “appropriation” then declares that Europe and Asia, not America, is where ...
Wibutee in Tampere: Club Music and Jazz Collide
by Matthew Wuethrich
Old Customs Hall Tampere, Finland October 31, 2003 ”This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/ not with a bang but a whimper.” T.S. Eliot’s words run through my head as the Norwegian quintet Wibutee, the opening act of the Tampere ...
The Bad Plus in Tampere: Cinematic Trio Images
by Matthew Wuethrich
Old Customs Hall Tampere, Finland October 31, 2003 There are many ways to reach an audience, and The Bad Plus has certainly tapped into a host of them. The press has given too much attention to their deconstructions of such pop classics as “Smells like Teen Spirit” and “Heart of ...
The Electrics in Tampere: All-Acoustic Electricity
by Matthew Wuethrich
Old Customs Hall Tampere, Finland November 1, 2003 An all-acoustic group called The Electrics-what’s up? As saxophonist Strure Ericson explains it the name comes from a feeling the quartet once got while playing. German trumpeter Axel Dorner compared the group’s interaction to standing next to an electrical transformer-the almost palpable ...
Kornstad Trio in Tampere: Improvisation as Negotiation
by Matthew Wuethrich
Old Customs Hall Tampere, Finland November 1, 2003 Improvisation can be seen as a negotiation, a constant give and take of ideas, accepting some and rejecting others, eyes always looking forward from the moment. The young Norwegian Kornstad Trio conducts such a negotiation during the second day of the Tampere Jazz Happening. ...
