The new Mirror Mirror album is excellent and genuine epoch music, writes critic Harri Uusitorppa.
Jazz / albums
Olli Ahvenlahti: Mirror Mirror. We Jazz.
★★★★
Pianist and composer Olli Åvenlahti finished the album in autumn 2017 Thinking, Whistling, which forced him to count the years on the fingers of two hands. So was it really the case that no less than 31 years had passed since his last jazz release?
Well, it was, really. Åhvenlahti’s fourth own album, soon forgotten The Way You Walk was published at the end of 1986, when the biggest Finnish music news was probably the breakup of the Dingo band.
Åhvenlahti, who became known to the general public on television, had performed, composed and recorded a variety of rhythm music after that, for example as the conductor of Yle, as the conductor of Komediateatteri Arena and, of course, Vesa-Matti Loirin as the wig-headed accompanist of the sketch character, Puppe. But he had almost completely ignored the modern jazz he loved, which spurred him to become a student at the Sibelius Academy and a little later, in the early 1970s, to become a professional musician.
Now Åvenlahti, 74, reaches even further into its golden past, because recorded last fall Mirror Mirror is a semi-sequel to his second self-titled album The Poetille. It is Åland’s most famous piece, which much later gave birth to a small European dance club hit Grandma’s Rocking Chair.
Released by Love Records The Poetin in August 1976, i.e. almost 48 years ago.
Recorded in top studios in Stockholm and guitarist by Georg Wadenius produced by The Poetin own music was, at least in terms of sound, the most fashionable jazz funk, which divided jazz listeners everywhere with its futuristic electricity. The main instruments in Åland were a Moog synthesizer and, above all, a Rhodes electric piano – the same faithful, already battered individual who is also Mirror Mirror at the core.
However, the other musicians of the current quintet in Åland can’t remember anything about these controversial times in jazz. The eldest is a tenor saxophonist Joonatan Rautioand later years are represented by trumpeters Jukka Eskolabass guitarist Ville Herrala and the drummer Jaska Lukkarinen. They were all born only after Olli bought his Rhodes – that is, after 1972.
The same may apply to most now Mirror Mirror a key target group, for whom this mostly leisurely and lingering jazz will probably appear as a timeless representative of a bygone era. A great future lies ahead.
Mirror Mirror is pure epoch music, but excellent as such, because Åhvenlahti is a true witness and a true creator of this genre. As a reliable guarantee man, he also wisely avoids any kind of over-attempting and sticks to being a melodic lyricist, i.e. what he does best. Like the previous solo album, the compositions are both whistling and distant at the same time, sometimes intellectual in a cool way.
Still Mirror Mirror is first and foremost a group album – and more so than made with a larger and more random group The Poet. Compared to that, Åland’s music now sounds more focused and soloistically brighter, thanks to Rauti and Eskola, who shine throughout the album. They dare to look in the mirror like everyone else.