Iro Haarla Quartet

The music of Finnish pianist/harpist/composer Iro Haarla bears strong resemblance to that of her late husband, drummer Edvard Vesala. Indeed, she gave shape and colour to many of his ideas in her arrangements for his Sound and Fury group. Iro Haarla’s new quintet incorporates more improvising, is deeply melodic, and favours a restrained melancholy. Her musicians—Verneri Pohjola trumpet, Kari “Sonny” Heinla saxophone, Reino Laine drums, and Ulf Krokfors bass—are keenly attuned to Haarla’s gorgeous, evocative, and sometimes desolate ruminations. Iro’s ECM-recording debut Northbound represents some of the finest of Nordic contemporary jazz. Britain’s Jazz Journal International muses: “Building on the free ballad form that was such a defining element in Vesala’s aesthetic, the music flows organically from the most pensive of harp or piano-led introductory meditations to expansive group flurries of high but intensely focused energy…the mood is mostly rubato and hymnal, deeply soulful.”
Northbound is a very strong statement from a player and composer who should be heard more widely.