Iro Haarla Quintet

Space, meditative calmness and the presence of nature are the main features of the Finnish-Norwegian Iro Haarla Quintet’s recent ECM album Vespers. Trygve Seim and Mathias Eick are on horns, Jon Christensen on drums. The mellow sound is full and mature, and the playing staggeringly beautiful. It’s the kind of musical scenery that draws you subtly in and makes you forget the ratrace.

In this band Haarla concentrates on piano and harp, but plays in other settings also electric piano, organ and synthesizers. She came to limelight in her late husband Edward Vesala’s mighty Sound & Fury. Later she has led her own bands that vary from the duo with this band’s double bassist and Iro’s current partner Uffe Krokfors to larger ensembles, like the 10-piece Loco Motife. Haarla’s favourite pianists are Paul Bley, Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, but her main inspiration is Mother Nature with her endlessly diverse energy.

Concert supported by Finsk-Norsk Kulturinstitutt

Lineup

Name
Instrument
Christensen Jon
drums
Haarla Iro
piano
Krokfors Ulf
bass
Powell Hayden
trumpet
Seim Trygve
saxophones

Performances in 2012

Date
Time
Venue
21.07.2012
21.00
Porin Teatteri