Iiro Rantala – Tough Stuff, 180g

November 11, 2006 was a very emotional evening. After almost 20 years together and thousands of concerts worldwide, the Finnish trio Töykeät around pianist Iiro Rantala performed together on stage for the last time. For them, it was both an end and a departure. For as difficult as it was to disband what was probably the most influential, and in any case the most humorous piano trio in the Finnish jazz world, he was able to try out a wide variety of line-ups from then on – in jazz, classical music and occasional excursions into rock and pop. Rantala’s ACT debut Lost Heroes in 2011 heralded something like his second international career. This was followed by further solo and duo albums, spectacular piano summits with Michael Wollny and Leszek Możdżer, among others, as well as orchestral recordings with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker. Rantala wrote a complete Christmas oratorio for the choir Cantores Minores and the opera Die Zaubermelodika for the Komische Oper Berlin. He has also filmed several musical formats for Finnish television and currently produces his own podcast, Algoyrtmi, about European jazz

But the trio theme has never let go of Rantala since the end of Trio Töykeät and now, almost 20 years after its end, it is time for the Iiro Rantala HEL Trio. Rantala says: “I’m very happy that I tried so many different things after Trio Töykeät. But just before the pandemic, I had a couple of gigs with bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Anton Eger. It was a very promising start. Since then, I had dreamed of starting a trio again. But Dan was far too busy. Anton Eger then recommended Conor Chaplin, with whom he had been playing in Marius Neset’s band for a long time. It’s always good when the bassist and drummer are already well-rehearsed. Both are extremely busy on the road, but it worked out and I’m very happy about it.

The Iiro Rantala HEL Trio, named after the Helsinki airport from which Rantala’s musical ventures usually take off, sounds new and familiar at the same time, with Rantala indulging in nostalgia rather casually: “There’s a little story. Anton Eger heard Trio Töykeät as a child together with Marius Neset at the Molde Festival. It was one of their first jazz concerts and they were real fans. When we started the HEL Trio, Anton, who knows an enormous amount of repertoire, really wanted to play the Töykeät pieces Gadd A Tee and Met By Chance. I then thought that after two decades that was fine. We changed them a bit, one is now called Tee Four Three, the other Cabaret Perdu.” Liberty City, a little-played but much appreciated piece by Jaco Pastorius, is a composition that reflects Rantala’s love of American funk and soul. The piece sits naturally alongside numbers such as Stockholm Syndrome, in which Rantala plays with the typical melancholy of Scandinavian jazz in a tongue-in-cheek yet deeply felt way

It is the contrasts that make the Iiro Rantala HEL Trio so appealing. As a pianist, Rantala often impresses with great lightness and ravishingly smooth lines. And then he transforms himself into a humorous rummager in the piano who can powerfully unfold pathos. There is something baroque about his attitude, his playing is full of relish, so that it only takes a few notes and the audience is already on his side of musical enjoyment. On the other hand, Anton Eger, with his irresistibly delicate playing, fueled by a wide variety of styles, and Conor Chaplin, with his weighty and agile grooves on the bass, bring their very own idea of sound and design to the music. And so the Iiro Rantala HEL Trio is not a nostalgic back-to-the-roots project: “For me, music should always move forward,” says Rantala. The restless, almost hyperactive nature, the urge to try things out and surprise his audience again and again and the ability to play the most diverse genres and styles authentically while always sounding like himself make Iiro Rantala an exceptional phenomenon among European pianists. And the Iiro Rantala HEL Trio’s Tough Stuff is a further milestone on his richly varied journey of discovery.

Reviews

“The high-quality recording transports the vinyl transparently, dynamically and without any crackling or crackling.” (MINT, July 2024)