FRMCD005
Format: CD - Digipack 4 pages
Release date: 06.02.2013
Jazz: Modern


One of the most skilled jazz pianists in Finland, Joonas Haavisto (b. 1982) released his trio's album, Micro to Macro, in February 2013. Having already impressed critics and audiences alike with the trio's debut, Blue Waters, back in 2009, Haavisto now looks set to place himself firmly in the ranks of top Finnish pianists and composers. Joonas Haavisto Trio's line-up also features Antti Lötjönen on double bass and Joonas Riippa on drums. In Japan, the trio's album will be released on the venerable jazz label Blue Gleam; their debut album was a critical success in Japan, receiving positive reviews in the likes of Swing Journal, which is the leading jazz magazine in the country. The band will also be following their Japanese release with an extensive tour in April. On their soulful soon-to-be-released album, the dynamic trio gets inspired by nature and physics, as well as fascinating phenomena in the micro and macro worlds. Pieces such as Partying Quarks and Color Confinement refer to interactions inside atomic nuclei, while Circling Planets and Is There Anybody draw inspiration from the outer space. Based around the traditional jazz trio format, the band mix their unconventional approach with an assertive and straightforward style and a fresh Nordic jazz sound, which relies strongly on the interplay between the musicians. Listening to Micro to Macro – to how subtly the pieces are structured together into a melodic whole, and to the highly polished technical prowess – it's no surprise to learn that Joonas Haavisto's background is in classical music. Haavisto first began his musical studies at the age of seven on the classical double bass but later, at the age of sixteen, took up playing the piano. After finishing upper secondary school, he studied the piano at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Jim Beard, Jukkis Uotila, Seppo Kantonen and other first- class jazz musicians.