His appearance in a double piano setting with Michael Wollny on 2013’s Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic I released in the year he became the pianist of choice for the first EST Symphonic concert were just two high profile events in Iiro Rantala’s recent career trajectory.
On Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic recorded at the home of the Berlin Philharmonic, in itself something of a coup for jazz, it was on the Finn’s composition ‘Tears for Esbjörn,’ the lovely melody of which curiously recalled Phil Collins’ ‘Another Day in Paradise’ – non-Collins fans don’t let that coincidence put you off – his measured arrangement of ‘Aria and Goldberg Variation,’ which turns into ‘All the Things You Are’ by the end also impressed.
On Rantala’s earlier album My History of Jazz the Trio Töykeät player made his vision more explicit, explaining at the time: “My entire history in music can be heard on this album.”
Beginning with his encountering the music of Bach at just six, hence the presence of five improvisations on the Goldberg Variations at the core of a sprightly modern-mainstream album, Rantala’s ‘journey’ via Bach took in Kurt Weill, Monk, Gershwin, Juan Tizol, and Lars Gullin plus his own tunes, his indomitable zest for a good improvisational break always standing out. That journey is explored further when Rantala plays the Model in Sligo on 14 March, and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin at noon next day.
Stephen Graham