Vespers
Iro Haarla Quintet
ECM Records.
Many times over I’ve
approached an aspect of jazz as though it’s an uphill battle, something I’ll
have to fight tooth-and-nail to comprehend, and most of those instances have
proven far easier to digest than I’d expected. But no record felt quite as
natural and immediate for me as Vespers, which I first played while wandering
the snowy fields of my wife’s parents’ place.
It goes without
saying that Vespers exudes the wintry solitude of its cover-art but how this
quintet manages such a unique sound is worth a few words. With exception to the
occasions where Trygve Seim and Mathias Eick synchronize their powerful horns,
Haarla’s quintet mediates between the soft brushstrokes of Jon Christensen’s
drums, the dull rumble of Ulf Krokfors’ double-bass and Haarla’s twin strengths
on piano and harp. The culmination of these performances carries a dream-like
quality that I’ve yet to step away from.
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