Ilmiliekki Quartet (Finland)
| 2011 - Performing in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand | |||
Ilmiliekki Quartet (Finland)
Verneri Pohjola - trumpet, Tuomo Prättälä - piano, Antti Lotjonen - bass, Olavi Louhivuori - drums www.myspace.com/ilmiliekki - www.myspace.com/verneripohjola ILMILIEKKI is a superb 4 piece band from Finland that's winning the hearts of contemporary and mainstream jazz lovers in Scandinavia and beyond: trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Ilmiliekki’s debut album 'March Of The Alpha Males' on TUM Records was a nominee for a Jazz Emma (the Finnish Grammy) for the best jazz album of the year 2003. In 2004 the band was nominated Young Artist of the Year by the Finland Festivals organisation, while Verneri Pohjola was chosen as the Pori Jazz Festival Young Artist of the same year. Also in 2004, Ilmiliekki received the highly respected Teosto Prize (the Finnish Composers Copyright Society’s prize), and following Ilmiliekki's new release 'Take it with Me' , Verneri Pohjola was voted the 'Jazz musician of the year 2009' Emma award in Finland. Considering all this the Ilmiliekki Quartet represents some of the best young talent in Finnish jazz. The band's leader, trumpeter Verneri Pohjola (1977), features frequently in his own projects (award winning 'Aurora' project 2009). The real power of Ilmiliekki, however, lies in their ensemble playing and interaction. All four musicians are major players on their respective instruments and they all share the vision, attitude, courage and self-confidence necessary in order to make creative, ambitious and impressive music.
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Ensemble playing that has won the hearts of audiences in Europe, Australia (Wangaratta Jazz Festival Oct '08) and Canada (Jazz festivals in Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver, July '09): awesome trumpet player - real poetry - Ken Pickering. Federation Canadian Jazz Festivals Several other international acts gave
memorable concerts during the festival's first 24
hours. We heard a terrific young Finnish group, the Ilmiliekki Quartet, led by the remarkable trumpeter
Verneri Pohjola. "Ilmiliekki" translates as "into
the naked flame", but the fire that animates these
musicians is of a subtle, burnished kind. Their
festival sets certainly contained moments of
dramatic and rhythmic intensity. More often, though,
the group created a shifting sense of ebb and flow
that lent the music a wonderfully organic feel.
Pohjola's trumpet was extraordinary expressive -
trembling with fragile beauty, mimicking a wooden flute or
conch shell, or suddenly piercing a muted melody with a ray
of dazzling sunshine
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