Back in the day and in the back end of North London, you'd have to hunt high and low for Olli Ahvenlahti's 'Grandma's Rocking Chair' as made trendy by those evil twins of jazzdance Kenny Dope & Peterson, and now look, there's a whole brand new album by Mr. Ahvenlahti so let's look into the 'Mirror Mirror'.
Finnish jazz legend, pianist-composer Olli Ahvenlahti surprised us all when there was news of a 8-track album when 'Paint It Blue' was released as a single. But, that's not the half of it as each track seems to get better than the last; particularly watch out for 'Paint It Blue'.
We Jazz Records of late have a distinct 'experimental' edge to them, like Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones's 'New Monuments' that came out last month (see review HERE) but this is more reflective big band jazz cool - like the West Coast meet Jimi Tenor at Jim Rockford's gaff; that's where 'A House In Montagnola' should be anyway
And you know Olli and We Jazz wouldn't scrimp on the band. In addition to Olli on Fender Rhodes and other keys, we've got 5 corners royalty Jukka Eskola (trumpet and fluegelhorn), Joonatan Rauto (tenor sax), Ville Herrala (electric bass) and Jaska Lukkarinen (drums and percussion).
There may not be a 'Grandma's Rocking Chair' - original released in 1976 and re-issued in 2001 - but he's lost nothing of his jazz-fusion elegance and this is a must this year; and definitely a must on the day before Record Store Day.
Artist: Olli Ahvenlahti
Title: New Monuments
Release date: 19th April, 2024
Label : We Jazz Records
Catalog Number : WJLP75
Format: LP / CD / Digital / Bandcamp
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