The first concert at the Model since the opening of Shared Visions, the rehang of the Niland Collection, the paintings of Jack B. Yeats a signature ingredient of the feast of the imagination dotted around the white walls, this was Iiro Rantala’s first concert in Sligo the event co-promoted by the Model and Sligo Jazz Project, the summer school and festival, which marks its tenth anniversary this year.

Rantala, the first pianist in EST Symphony, and about to go into the studio to record his new John Lennon-themed album for long-time label ACT, sometimes not exactly sings but loud-hums along and then, as he moves further into the zone, head bangs side to side as the intensity level shoots right up.

Virtuosic as a pianist and without the aid of a microphone by contrast the jokes tumbled out in his zany chats to the audience, laughter breaking out around the room. His jazz hands came into their own, part of the act, reaching up high above his shoulder level to practically semaphore whether he was improvising or reverting to the music he had prepared at home.

His material at the Model was drawn from a number of albums notably My History of Jazz and Lost Heroes but he also unveiled takes on ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Woman’ that he is working on and will tour in the autumn once the Lennon album is released. Beginning with Bach “the first jazz man. Yes jazz began in Germany,” he quipped to throaty laughter from the audience, drily adding that Bach did a few club gigs around Leipzig, Rantala has considerable power at his disposal as both a classical and jazz player, able to harness the crashing tides of the chordal waves of energy as easily as lolling in the shifting sands of contrapuntal exploration he conjures.

Best of his compositions was the moving ‘Tears for Esbjörn’ dedicated to Esbjörn Svensson aided by the amazing acoustic sound in the room, the power of the Steinway, the innards explored in revelatory fashion by Rantala, matched uniquely by the visual element the gallery provided: it was impossible to glance around and not be transported. Towards the end Rantala said that he hoped his appearance would put a smile on the face even on him, pointing at the formidable painting of the great writer John McGahern whose portrait by Nick Miller was staring at him from the wall. You would have sworn the writer grinned back.

Stephen Graham

Piano among paintings top at the Model; and Rantala above in the video on an earlier occasion playing ‘Tears for Esbjörn’