Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Pori Jazz 2022
Pori Jazz 2022
Courtesy Olli Sulin
Kirjurinluoto Concert Park
Pori, Finland
July 14-16, 2022
If this year's 55th annual Pori Jazz festival had a "moment," it was when
Immanuel Wilkins
saxophone, altob.1997
Shabaka Hutchings
woodwindsMost of the audience were probably unaware that Hutchings' best-known (and best) project, Sons of Kemet, was playing one of its final dates- -the quartet announced its impending dissolution "for the foreseeable future" on social media just six weeks before the Pori show. The bombshell follows both the mainstream breakthrough of last year's fourth long-player, Black to the Future (2021, Impulse!)—a surprise fixture of numerous pop and rock year-end rankings—and, perhaps not coincidentally, tuba player
Theon Cross
tubaBut both Kemet and Wilkins' names jumped out among the high-voltage bill—aptly described as "mouth-watering" by one British jazz monthly—assembled for the long-delayed Pori Jazz 2022. With
Charles Lloyd
saxophoneb.1938
Kenny Garrett
saxophone, altob.1960
Thundercat
bass, electricb.1984
Joe Lovano
drumsb.1952
Dave Douglas
trumpetb.1963
Blue Note in the 21st century
So, back to Friday afternoon on the Lokki stage, the intimate tucked-away, all-acoustic platform named after the Finnish term for seagull, which was scene of the stirring Wilkins/Hutchings encounter, and much of the festival's most wonderful moments (and there were many). Even before the surprise closer, Wilkins' set was already on course to be the weekend's ecstatic highlight—his quartet opening wordlessly with a mesmerizing, 40-minute sonic suite built on two of Omega's most enigmatic themes, "Grace and Mercy" and "Ferguson—An American Tradition." Both pieces sport smart, easily hummable yet devilishly oblique refrains, which spiral and unravel as off-kilter vamps for minutes at a time, swaying and churning, soaked in water and hung out to dry time and time again. There's a hint of
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
Micah Thomas
pianob.1997
Daryl Johns
bass
Kweku Sumbry
drumsA day earlier, in the first of a distressing number of programming dilemmas, Wilkins' label mates
Joel Ross
vibraphoneAlternating between vibraphone and piano, Ross directed the steady composure of his acoustic quartet with the studious paternity of not just a band leader but a musical director, conjuring long, open forms building to frenzied rhythmic crescendos. Playing with space and texture, the mood was one of chilled intensity: solemn but uplifting, comforting but cathartic, at peace but unsure. Sadly the spell was broken repeatedly by the boom of Domi's bass keyboard from the neighbouring stage, where a very different conception of modern jazz was being played out.
The genre probably doesn't need any more poster wunderkids, but this pair of irreverent upstarts are sure to command as many headlines as the feathers they ruffle. Sitting face-to-face as if locked in a chess game, this painfully virtuosic duo's set unfolds quickly like a frenetic exchange of interlocking pieces and strategies—the keyboard sounding out big, bright melodies and synthesised bass lines while Beck's restless drumming cycles between ever-shifting breakbeats and club rhythms. The effect is dazzling, not least because they make it seem so carefree—or rather careless.
Introducing one tune as "Pussy with Balls" was a (long-running) joke, but the duets with
Herbie Hancock
pianob.1940
Snoop Dogg
vocalsThundercat
bass, electricb.1984
Legendary headgear
At the other end of the sonic spectrum, then, is the stoic reverence to his art offered by Charles Lloyd, who at 84 appears sage-like in his shaman-esque sound-scaping, prophetically garbed in trademark dark glasses and a beanie hat, touting a sideways-leaning saxophone. A fixture of the hippie rock festivals of the 1960s who enjoyed a second renaissance after signing to ECM Records in 1989, Lloyd never lost sight of the simple spiritualism which makes his work so universally comforting. It's an approach he has aged into remarkably, with many of his recent live recordings, both for ECM and now Blue Note, among the most compelling of his career.As an improviser, Lloyd was always a master of understated ornamentation, with a probing delivery that suits his twilight years; sudden flurries and riffing triplets dance around the subject in nervous gasps, an uncertain conversationalist always grasping at a point, waiting for breath, but rarely reaching the conclusion he hoped for. It might sound weak or hollow from a lesser talent, but always carries the air of profound meditation on Lloyd's lips—in part because of the sympathetic cast of collaborators the legend seeks out, frequently framed by diverse settings from Indian percussionist (
Zakir Hussain
tablas1951 - 2024
Bill Frisell
guitar, electricb.1951
Some 23 years Lloyd's junior, Kenny Garrett still carried the same glow (and trademark headgear) of an elder statesman—not least because a good dozen audience members claimed to have been there when Garrett appeared at the same festival some 35 years ago as part of
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
The inherent funkiness and the strong uplifting, underlying melodies meant that even at the music's most intense moments there was still something for a more casual audience to grasp onto, while percussionist
Rudy Bird
percussionRonald Bruner
drumsLondon calling
If Wilkins and Ross can be credited with injecting fresh verve into traditional acoustic jazz forms, there's little such reverent respect paid in London's modern jazz conceptions, represented by a trio of big-name acts top of any sensible bucket list. On record, trumpeter and vocalist
Emma-Jean Thackray
multi-instrumentalistA richer rhythmic spectacle was staged by London's
Kokoroko
band / ensemble / orchestraWith debut long-player Could We Be More (2022, Brownswood) on the cusp of release (August 5), most of the music was unfamiliar to the audience, with just a single slow-burning tune ("Ti-de") from their name-making eponymous EP (2019, Brownswood). Clearly the group has grown multitudes since "Abusey Junction" went viral, today conjuring deeper trances and weirder hooks than their debut days. However, while misty-eyed memory may be playing a role, some may have felt the octet cooked even harder on an earlier visit to the region, ideally billed for a 1.30am club gig closing Sweden's Way Out West festival three years earlier.
Earlier the same day, Sons of Kemet were the one "acoustic" act that could, and probably should, have enjoyed exposure to this bigger electric stage—within moments of them taking to Lokki dozens of audience members were crowding in front of the normally seated space. And there was no sitting down: the uninitiated didn't know what had hit them—and perhaps, neither did the programmers. The quartet's unique line-up has always been its calling card, and the line-up of two drummers and two horns has lost none of its novelty or ferocious bite—even with an unfamiliar drummer sitting in at one of the kits after reported transport woes.
The quartet may be a group conception, but in practice it very much feels like Hutchings is captain of this ship, navigating his crew though the tumultuous waters of their own sonic churn. Playing as one eight-limbed beast, the opposing drum kits are set in motion, criss-crossing one another in a gigantic sonic storm that doesn't let up for 30-plus minutes. On top of this, Cross's tuba plays the roll of a bassist, blaring out thunderous, belly-turning riffs with a headbanger's precision. Over this swirling mass Hutchings blurts jagged torrents—pulling melodies from the ether and shooting solos off out into the cosmos. Songs aren't called out or even likely planned—at the climax of each improvisation, the band leader simply returns to the head or signals a new theme, the tuba and drums moving swiftly into step without losing the beat—conjuring one almighty movement that had us on our feet for an hour. The only break came when Hutchings pulled out a traditional flute for an unaccompanied solo which, ironically, only recalls his percussion-less debut solo album Afrikan Culture (2022, Impulse!). This quartet will rightly be mourned by a generation.
Homegrown, all right with me
Finland's own jazz legacy was shyly acknowledged by the appearance of talents young and old, the tone set with a delayed celebration of reedist
Juhani Aaltonen
saxophoneb.1935
A better turnout greeted the younger generation, with saxophonist
Linda Fredriksson
saxophoneEarlier the same day, electric bassist Talambo assembled a seven-piece band to present his own idiosyncratic, self-produced debut Delusions of Grandeur (2020, Eclipse Music). Opener "Man Number Nine" was a disorientating collage of sound, while "Time to Escalate" saw two guitarists build a hypnotic jaggy swirl to cushion the leader's heavily distorted bass solo, sitting somewhere between
Weather Report
band / ensemble / orchestraThe biggest spotlight afforded a Finnish jazz artist went to hotshot arranger/guitarist Valtteri Laurell, whose brass-heavy Nonet had the privilege of opening—and bringing a rare dose of actual jazz to —the main stage. This quasi big band sported the kind of smart, sophisticated arrangements that perhaps betray his background working with pop artists. While the polite literacy threatened to stifle in its safeness, some fiery horn blowouts and taut vamps broke the more easy listening conventions.
You call that jazz?
"How much yatz is there really at Pori Jazz?" a Finnish friend asked me deviously a few days earlier after learning my intended destination. The answer, as the above proves, is quite a ruddy lot. But of course, a mainstream happening that attracts some 200,000 visitors over three days is balanced with a fair amount of pop and rock fare. No complaints here—it's the mass appeal of headline sets by the likes of John Legend, Lewis Capaldi, Gov't Mule, Tinashe and Simply Red that subsidises the appearance of costly legends like Lloyd and Garrett in front of a few hundred faithful fans at the all-acoustic Lokki. You get what you pay for.But what tips the credential balance in Pori's favour, and away from my sceptical naysaying friend, is the second arena Op stage—scene of not just the electric fusions of Domi + JD Beck, Thackery,
Nate Smith
drumsb.1974
The same intermittent storms added an element of windswept drama to Tuareng guitarist
Mdou Moctar
guitar
Tinariwen
band / ensemble / orchestraOther crossover moments worthy of note include
Cory Wong
guitarb.1985
Whether you want to call
Thundercat
bass, electricb.1984
Kamasi Washington
saxophoneb.1981
On record, Thundercat's music is short, sharp and snippy, intricate musical vignettes often little more than two minutes long, laden with a sideways inner logic and frequent bursts of humour —that all make clear his powers as a writer, producer, comedian and iconoclast. But it's only onstage that Bruner's true improvisation skills are allowed to let rip—after teasing the opening "Rabbit Ho"/"Captain Stupido" medley, the instrumental "Uh Uh" is unleashed (or was it "How Sway"?), a cheeky two-minute instrumental bass workout on record transformed into a freak show of virtuosity and poise. For all the pop sensibilities of his recorded work, Bruner spends a lot more time shredding his pimped-up bass than at the mic. Not that there weren't songs aplenty—"Funny Thing," "Dragonball Durag" and closer "Them Changes" elicited a crazed pit welcome (while "Friend Game remained conspicuously absent!). But these established grooves often serve as jumping-off points for more nerdy noodling—backed by just keys and drums, Bruner gives himself plenty of freedom to twist, stretch out and wiggle his fingers, so like Hendrix or Prince on a hot night, tight pop songs devolve into epic jams of the highest calibre.
Paying an unusual amount of attention to his environment ("this weather is just awesome," he deadpans, more than once, as the rain falls on and on)—Bruner twisted the Mile High Club-vibed continent-crossing love song "Overseas" into an ode about, er, sex on the high seas. "Man it took a long time to get over on that boat," he jokes. "It made me think ... it'd be really nice to do it on a boat." But there was a sombre moment, too, with album closer "It Is What It Is" dedicated to all the artists we've lost in recent years—from close friend Mac Miller and
Robert Glasper
pianob.1978
Chick Corea
piano1941 - 2021
The bottom line
Established in 1966 at the small seaside town from which it takes its name, Pori Jazz is rightly proud of its ambassadorial role in bringing top-notch international jazz to Nordic Europe—the incredibly granular history section of its website details the line-ups for hundreds of performances from the past five-plus decades. Cancelled in 2020 and 2021, the long-awaited 55th edition hosted 36 acts over three days and across three stages. By my sums, almost half of the bill can be classified as jazz in the (almost) strictest sense, while around two-thirds was jazz-adjacent funk, soul or global groove which falls totally in step with the international jazz festival vibe.The only niggle? Most of these acts are spread between the intimate Lokki and second Op stage—that are always programmed simultaneously, taking the hour-long slots between the main stage headliners (when no other music is programmed—presumably to avoid sound leakage). In practice, this meant there were at least six hard decisions (run between two sets, or throw all your eggs into one basket?), and some fantastic acts I missed, all heartbreakingly interspersed with lulls in anything improvisational to hear. Now, complaining that there's too much good music to hear is of course the greatest of backhanders—and we all need those breaks to refresh ourselves—but one wonders if the programmers could have been a little bit braver with the early main stage slots at what is proudly billed as a jazz festival (and if the few risks they did take were experiments, then they surely paid off).
In any case, at ??185 (US$189) to catch at least a dozen top-notch jazz acts over three days, the festival presents a very tempting proposition— not least because of its welcoming vibe and serene location. Lokki acts are presented respectfully to hundreds of genuine enthusiasts, in the pleasant environment of a riverside park. There's green space aplenty, food and loo queues were barely encountered and the sound quality was never less than great. Indeed, the somewhat segregated nature of the stages is only a symptom of the organisers' desire to ensure the best quality audio experience. Although a niche reviewer will always argue a little more bravery could have been displayed, Pori Jazz's programming surely ranks among the best of mainstream European jazz festivals, and this edition certainly lived up to all its "mouth-watering" promise.
Tags
Live Review
charles lloyd
Rob Garratt
Finland
Immanuel Wilkins
shabaka hutchings
Sons Of Kemet
Theron Cross
Kenny Garrett
Thundercat
joe lovano
Dave Douglas
Wayne Shorter
Joel Ross
Blue Note Records
Herbie Hancock
Snoop Dogg
ECM Records
ECM
Bill Frisell
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Emma-Jean Thackray
Kokoroko
Juhani Aaltonen
Linda Fredriksson
Talambo
Weather Report
kamasi washington
Robert Glasper
Austin Peralta
Chick Corea
Ronald Bruner
Rudy Bird
Comments
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Charles Lloyd Concerts
Dec
13
Sat
Charles Lloyd Sky Trio Featuring Larry Grenadier &...
Soka Performing Arts CenterAliso Viejo, CA
Support All About Jazz
All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.
Go Ad Free!
To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.Showcase
Buy Now
Featured
Darwin AI: Surivior Choice
By Alex Otey buy
Carnaval - The Songs Were So Beautiful
By Antonio Adolfo buyGiveaway
