Mighty Mighty - See The Light (2014)

 

Mighty Mighty comes blazing forward from the flourishing Finnish jazz scene. The creation of pianist-composer Kari Setälä, this collective of Helsinki jazz A-listers navigates effortlessly between various flavours of jazz, leaping from energetic straight-ahead into swinging hard-bop and vintage jazz-funk – and everything in between.

Jimi Tenor & Impostor Orchestra - Exocosmos (2013)

Jimi Tenor featuring Impostor Orchestra LP, Exocosmos, is more than a decade´s worth of sessions emerging from a parallel cosmos. Sometimes the meetings take place in a living room, sometimes inside an electronic sequencer. Fields of rhythms have emerged through the hands of children playing sticks. The composer’s pen has been a conduit of the horizon where past and present choose their sides. The LP which is immediately intimate yet metamorphose into massive, the search for a magic moment has been profound. Tribulation and delight are equally true in Exocosmos.

Jukka Eskola - Orquesta Bossa (2013)

by Jukka Eskola

"The Orquesta Bossa project started actually with a live gig in January 2012 when I had a chance to produce a concert for a line up with a quintet plus a string quartet. The material was Jazz and Bossa standards, nothing unusual. The sound of the combo got stuck in my mind, I just loved the traditional Bossa sound of the rhythmic section, combined with the front line horns and the string quartet adding a little bit more modern angle to it. So I decided to make more of the project and compose some original tunes and make an album. I was lucky to get my good friend, drummer Teppo Mäkynen involved in the project as a co-writer and producer. He has such wide knowledge in all kinds of music, and being a Bossa Nova enthusiastic, he was the one and only guy I could think of for this project. So we made tunes that we thought would be, in a way traditional Bossa Nova, but at the same time having some Scandinavian angle to it."

Cola & Jimmu (Nicole Willis & Jimmy Tenor) - Enigmatic (2013)

Recording artists Jimi Tenor & Nicole Willis who are life partners as well as past collaborators, reunite for their new project, artist name Cola&Jimmu, 'Cola", a kind of pseudonym of Nicole and 'Jimmu", associated with the legend of the first emperor of Japan, Jimnu Tenno. Both Tenor and Willis have fronted their own projects over the past decade, Willis most recently working with Helsinki - based group the Soul Investigators, for their albums Tortured Soul & Keep Reachin' Up, Timmion Records 2005, 2013. The Helsinki Sanomat recently called Willis & the Soul Investigators 'the world's best on the stage of Tavastia". The title track of Keep Reachin' Up was chosen in February 2012 for POTUS, Barack Obama's Re - Election Spotify Playlist. 

Myron & E with The Soul Investigators - Broadway

The vocal duo is something of a rarity. There have been countless solo stars, trios, quartets and quintets, but the pairing of equally talented singers isn’t nearly as common. Sam and Dave, Ashford and Simpson, the Righteous Brothers and the Everly Brothers comprise a short list of standouts. Enter Myron & E.

Myron (Myron Glasper) was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. He sang in choirs and played piano growing up, and was a star athlete in football and track, but found his calling as a dancer. Working with Rosie Perez landed him on the early ’90s sketch comedy show In Living Color. During those years, however, the streets of South Central were no place to foster creativity, so Myron moved to the Bay and began touring as a backup singer, which is where he met E (Eric “E da Boss” Cooke).

Timo Lassy - In With Lassy (2012)

A relaxed effort in the vein of the classic ”cooking session” tradition of modern jazz. That is, the band came in, took hold of the new tunes penned by Lassy and his trusty drummer/producer Teppo ”Teddy Rok” Mäkynen, and fired on all cylinders. The result? Some of the most swinging no-nonsense in your face and under your feet jazz you’ll likely to hear this year or during most of the others. No gimmicks needed here, this jazz is cooking. The LP includes free digital download code and poster.

Atomic - Here Comes Everybody (2012)

Quite possibly the greatest album to date from Atomic – a set that steps out with a bold, rich sound right from the start – giving the whole thing the feel of some lost classic slice of avant jazz, but with a freshness that definitely marks the set with plenty of Atomic energy too! The horns are amazing – fierce interplay between the trumpet of Magnus Broo and reeds of Fredrik Ljungvist – locking together at times with these raging lines that have almost an ESP sort of feel – then breaking out with soul-drenching solos on their own – especially when Ljungvist handles the tenor. Paal Nilssen-Love's drums are on fire throughout – Havard Wilk barrels away on piano – and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten rolls things along strongly on bass. Titles include "Morphemes", "HCE", "Milano", "Kreuzberg Variations", "Panama", and "Unity Toccata"

- Dusty Groove

OUT NOW ON JAZZLAND norway

Jukka Eskola - Walkover (2009)

Wonderful work from trumpeter Jukka Eskola -- a set that's every bit as hip and jazzy as his work with the Five Corners Quintet! The sound here is different, though, as the core group features some sweet Fender Rhodes alongside Jukka's soulful trumpet lines, a blend that's somewhere in the territory of Freddie Hubbard in the 70s on CTI, and which is a wonderful setting for Jukka's talents! The tunes are nice and lean, lots of rhythmic energy, sometimes modal, sometimes funky, and the Rhodes makes for some occasional spacey moments that are a nice change from usual, proof that Eskola can handle other styles than just the tight modal jazz and soulbop that he's usually known for. Some tracks feature occasional added instrumentation too, baritone and flute from Timo Lassy, plus tenor, trombone, and even some occasional strings. Teddy Rok produced, so you know the sound is great, and titles include "First Time", "Jova", "Dark Corner", "Double Time", "Teddy's Stretch", "El Aedaps", and "Chip N Charge"

http://www.myspace.com/jukkaeskola

Discover the wonderful soundworld of Ricky-Tik records right here!!!

Auteur Jazz - Aphorisms (2009)

Joyously romping grooves from Auteur Jazz -- a combo who take the modal style of the 60s European scene, and infuse it with a few contemporary touches of their own! The group are a bit more open-ended than some of the other club jazz combos on the Ricky Tick label -- willing to stretch out in some occasional exploratory modes or mellower moments, then step back with a hard-hitting groove to round things in place -- often getting a surprisingly rich sound from their relatively small lineup, which is mostly based around reeds and piano from Antti Hynninen, but also features occasional other saxes, strings, keyboards, and percussion. Sara Sayaed sings on the tracks "Kill You Alive" and "Tomorrow Knows" -- and other instrumental tracks include "Two Jaguars In Warsaw", "Marbles", "Who Struck John", "Gris Gris", "Uruguayo", and "Najgo".

© 1996-2010, Dusty Groove America, Inc.

MySpace page - On UTube/ Kill You Alive feat. Sara Sayed

The Five Corners Quintet & Kerkko Koskinen - Othello (ep, 2009)

The Five Corners Quintet and composer Kerkko Koskinen recently got together to produce the score of "Othello", a hit Shakespeare play at the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki. Ricky-Tick released an exclusive 10" vinyl of selected tracks that were recorded for the play. The "Othello" ten-inch will navigate along the signposts set by the wealth of historically relevant soundtrack jazz around, materialising itself as high-octane 21st century dancefloor jazz with a distinct old school library/soundtrack flava. The release is strictly limited to 1000 copies.

MySpacePage - Kerkko Koskinen - The 5 Corners Quintet Official site

The Five Corners Quintet - Chasin' The Jazz Gone By (2005)

The Five Corners Quintet is a Helsinki-based postmodern jazz outfit influenced by early sixties straight ahead and latin jazz. Led by producer Tuomas Kallio the Five Corners Quintet is a new extension of the highly acclaimed Nuspirit Helsinki collective.

The two innovators behind Five Corners Quintet, composer, producer and arranger Tuomas Kallio and the band's benevolent svengali and record label manager Antti Eerikäinen initially were simply set out to release a few vinyl singles of stylish jazz music tailored for the dance floor. As the first three vinyl single releases received a huge response among the press and international taste makers and at the same were all sold out, The Five Corners Quintet project slowly evolved into an established and more serious phase. This meant two things: setting up a live band and a CD-album project.
The debut album Chasin' The Jazz Gone By came out in September 2005, spent 11 weeks in the Finnish album TOP-40 chart and has been released in Europe (SonyBMG and Ricky-Tick Records/Timewarp), USA (Milan Entertainment/WEA) and Japan (Columbia International). The album and the vinyl singles preceding it have already sold more than 40.000 copies in total. Not bad for a jazz recording in 2005.
In musical terms the goal of TFCQ is to set an example of how dance floor friendly contemporary production can fruitfully meet the musical craftsmanship of the past, creating music that sounds as hip as the classic jazz records but is at the same time structurally polished and easily accessible music of today. Not housey nu-jazz, but jazz in the classic modernist spirit.

The Official Five Corners Quintet page

Five Corners @ MySpace

Five Corners @ Last.fm

Nuspirit Helsinki - S/T (2002)

Very 21st century, not at all cloying but easy on the ear and subtle as you could wish for, this debut might well become nu-jazz' flagship album. A potential archetype for the genre that crosses many genres and a highlight among this summer's releases, it also restores Guidance, a label that has been rather quiet of late, to the forefront of creative "dance-based" music. Even if the lounge bubble bursts or collapses under the weight of its own coziness, NuSpirit Helsinki will undoubtedly survive. Tuomas Kallio, DJ Ender, Kim Rantalla, and the rest of the players have put together a striking testimony to the new interdisciplinarity, but more importantly they have, by any reasonable yardstick, made some marvelous and, I suspect, timeless music.

(Κείμενο Maurice Bottomley @PopMatters)

NuSpirit Official

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