Six years after the much-loved “Northbound” – described by All About Jazz as “lovely, articulate, river-deep music” -, a new album of emotionally-powerful ballads from outstanding composer-pianist-harpist Iro Haarla and her remarkable Finnish-Norwegian ensemble. The line-up is unchanged, likewise the commitment of the players, top-flight improvisers, every one. “Vespers” continues a tradition of music – and a scope feeling – that Iro helped establish in the Far North in her years as composer/arranger/orchestrator for Edward Vesala’s bands (and magical ECM recordings including “Lumi”, “Ode To The Death Of Jazz”, “Invisible Storm” and “Nordic Gallery”). Iro has, furthermore, composed music for the UMO Jazz Orchestra (in 2002 for Tomasz Stanko as soloist, and in 2006 for a “UMO plays Haarla” event in Helsinki and for a suite of pieces premiered in Tampere). In 2008, at the instigation of Manfred Eicher, she premiered new music for string quartet and piano and harp in Helsinki.
Vespers
Iro Haarla Quintet
- 1A Port On A Distant Shore
07:35 - 2Vesper
08:46 -
06:16 - 4The Warm Currents Of The Sea
06:58 - 5Doxa
04:30 - 6Satoyama
04:46 - 7The Shimmer Of Falling Stars
06:34 - 8Returning Home
07:06 - 9Adieux
07:39
from the jury statement of the Finnish Jazz Federation’s Yrjö-Award 2006.
“Compared to ‘Northbound’, all of Haarla’s previous recordings seem like preliminaries. This studio album is stunning, but not in the sense that it overwhelms with pyrotechnics or audacious innovations. It is its wilful intimate revelations that set it apart, and it places Haarla in rarefied company – Annette Peacock, Billy Strayhorn and precious few others. Several compositions articulate a unique, stoic brand of torch music.”
Bill Shoemaker, Point of Departure.
The second album from Iro Haarla’s Finnish-Norwegian quintet carries forward the work begun on the composer-pianist-harpist’s “Northbound” album, which helped to focus overdue attention on Haarla’s music in its own right as well as on her role as a shaping force in progressive jazz. “Vespers”, likewise, extends a tradition of music - and a scope of feeling - that Iro helped establish in the Far North in her years as arranger/orchestrator for Edward Vesala’s bands and for his influential ECM recordings, including “Lumi”, “Ode To The Death Of Jazz”, “Invisible Storm” and “Nordic Gallery”. Haarla’s group includes powerful bassist Uffe Krokfors, himself a former member of Vesala’s Sound & Fury ensemble, who has partnered with Iro in most of her musical activities of the last decade. The quintet line-up was assembled in 2004 with help from producer Manfred Eicher, and with saxophonist Trygve Seim an important contributor from the outset. Seim, who played briefly with Edward Vesala at the end of the 1990s, has often remarked upon the influence of Vesala-Haarla on his own writing. Plans to continue work in a quartet with Edward and Iro were cut short by Vesala’s death in 1999, but Seim went on to tour Finland with Haarla.
“Northbound” and “Vespers” feature another very unique drummer, Jon Christensen, one of the innovators. He brings to Iro Haarla’s music his own special sense of dynamics, sensitivity and unpredictability. Like Vesala he understands how to play very persuasively and very individually in the free ballad zone. Indeed, he helped to shape it.
Now a rising star on the international jazz scene, Mathias Eick counts his experiences with Haarla as crucial for his development. “I really grew in working with Iro Haarla,” he told the International Trumpet Guild Journal in 2008. “It was fantastic to work with her. I got my first chance to work extensively in a slow, rubato style. [Iro’s songs] demand a lot of you because you have to communicate effectively with other musicians which is really hard in music like this. It’s quite difficult music, but a rewarding experience.” It was through working with Iro that Eick and Trygve Seim would hone their special musical understanding, their way of phrasing together. Subsequently they brought their highly compatible sounds into the very different context of Manu Katché’s group (see the album “Playground”), and Eick has since made occasional guest appearances with Trygve’s large ensembles.
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