Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Iiro Rantala - My History of Jazz (ACT 2012)

A unique melody-based mixture of the most diverse atmospheres: On “my history of jazz” Iiro Rantala presents his very own view of the evolution of jazz. With his special combination of humour, intelligence and “almost limitless techniques” (German radio station hr2) he frames the album with compositions by Bach. 

“My history of jazz" is the logical counterpart to Rantala's ACT debut "Lost Heroes", on which he built a unique personal monument to past musical paragons and kindred spirits – so unique, in fact, that it won him the Echo Jazz and the annual German Record Critics Award, amongst others. There too, the Finnish classical composers Jean Sibelius and Pekka Pohjola were of course also among the inspirations, as were the entirely dissimilar jazz piano legends Art Tatum, Erroll Garner and Michel Petrucciani. This time, great composers find their way into Rantala's kingdom, like George Gershwin ("Liza"), Kurt Weill ("September Song"), Duke Ellington and his valve trombonist Juan Tizol ("Caravan"), Thelonious Monk ("Eronel") and the Swedish cool jazz saxophonist Lars Gullin ("Danny’s Dream").
act records