FRMCD018
Format: CD - Digipack 4 pages
Release date: 28.10.2016
Jazz: Vocal


Nina Mya (b. 1989) is a Finnish jazz vocalist, composer and vocal teacher. She has received numerous awards, including the Best Soloist of the Young Nordic Jazz Comets 2011 and the Pori Jazz Artist of the Year 2012. Having been described as a bridge-builder between traditional and modern vocal jazz, she masters both the technical acrobatics of jazz and the disarming soulfulness of gospel. The third album, Closure – that was published in July 2016 at Pori Jazz Festival – is a bold, personal statement from the charismatic and adventurous jazz vocalist. Entitled Closure, the disc is a mature effort – a new strong chapter to Mya’s convincing CV. The album’s themes – knowing oneself, finding answers and the strife for inner peace – are well in keeping with its style: Mya’s dark, gospel and soul influenced music departs refreshingly from the familiar Finnish sound. The album also introduces her new, stellar crew: trumpeter Jukka Eskola, saxophonist Petri Puolitaival, pianist Henri Mäntylä, bassist Jori Huhtala and drummer Tuomas Timonen. “Closure is already my third album but no doubt the most significant one so far,” Nina Mya says. “With this album I feel, for the very first time, that there is nothing I would be at odds with or done differently. While nodding to such idols as Aretha Franklin and John Coltrane, the album pays also homage to American vocal jazz on a more general level – including its strong undercurrent of gospel. This tradition can be heard in my influences from Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Gregory Porter and so on.” The lyrics are by the leading lady while in composing the music she has been assisted by saxophonist Petri Puolitaival who’ve also made all the horn arrangements.