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Jukka Perko
Yelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower
by Mark Sullivan
The last time composer/pianist Yelena Eckemoff recorded in Finland she led a quintet on Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Production, 2017). The program was devoted to smells, particularly the phlox flower and other scents remembered from childhood. Here she returns to Finland with a sextet (including several returning players, basically the entire rhythm section) and a related concept: the life cycle of a wildflower. The mood of the music is well captured in the smiling band photo on the back of ...
read moreYelena Eckemoff: Adventures of the Wildflower
by Dan McClenaghan
The seeds of pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff's Adventures Of The Wildflower were planted in 2013, when she traveled to Hollola, Finland, to record Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H Productions, 2017) with a group of young Finnish musicians. Several Eckemoff albums came about after that recording, but the experience with her Finnish friends must have exerted a sort of gravitational pull, and in 2019 she made a return trip to the country to team with vibraphonist Panu Savolainen, bassist Antti Lotjonen and drummer ...
read moreJukka Perko Avara: Invisible Man
by Anthony Shaw
The three major names in the Finnish jazz world featured here come from three very different corners of the firmament. Jukka Perko achieved global recognition as a youth playing alto and soprano saxophone with Thelonius Monk, while guitarists Teemu Viinikainen and Jarmo Saari are better known in Scandinavia, the latter also for his proggy and pop excursions with XL Finland and Von Hertzen Brothers. Together on this disc they combine these orientations to play an assortment of self-penned and cover ...
read moreJukka Perko + Iiro Rantala: It takes two to Tango
by Anthony Shaw
This CD from two verging-on-veteran names on the Finnish jazz scene is a little disappointing in its energy, but not in its charm. Jukka Perko and Iiro Rantala have both earned their laurels years back, playing ear-bending, exhilarating jazz, the former with the likes of Dizzey Gillespie in his 1980s line-up and later McCoy Tyner, the latter with Gil Goldstein and then his piano led Trio Töykeät. And of course both have with nearly every Finnish musician of note on ...
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