Eine einzigartige, ganz auf Melodien konzentrierte Mischung voller verschiedener Stimmungen: Mit Bach als Klammer wirft Iiro Rantala auf „my history of jazz“ mit der ihm typischen Kombination aus Witz, Intelligenz und „schier grenzenloser Technik“ (hr 2) einen ganz eigenen Blick auf die Jazzgeschichte.
That old discussion has broken out again: What is jazz? Who does it belong to? Where does it begin? The latter of these questions is at least not an issue for the Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala: "Johann Sebastian Bach and his music came into my life when I was six." So it comes as no surprise that Bach ties up his new ACT album "my history of jazz" - Rantala's personal history of the music that captivated him when he was 13 is embedded in the classically rendered aria: "Ever since then I always wanted to become an improviser, composer, stage performer and bandleader". A universal concept shown on the five greatly varied improvisations on the Goldberg Variations, upon which Rantala threads the album like a string of pearls. “My history of jazz" is the logical counterpart to Rantala's ACT debut "Lost...
line upiiro rantala / piano
lars danielsson / bass & cello
morten lund / drums
adam bałdych / violin
Produced by Siggi Loch with the artist
Recorded by Bo Savik, April 19 & 20, 2012 at Tia Dia Studios Mölnlycke, Sweden
“September Song” was played on the "Alfred Brendel - Steinway D" and recorded by Klaus Scheuermann, June 18, 2012 at the ACT Art Gallery in Berlin
“Caravan” was played on a Bösendorfer Imperial and recorded by Antoine Desmons, July 9, 2012 at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Petit Theatre / Montreux Palace), Switzerland
Cover art by Joel Shapiro © 2005 – 2007, courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve Cologne, St. Moritz, Paris
