Jazz Finland Live

Verneri Pohjola – trumpet
Tuomo Prättälä – piano
Antti Lötjönen – bass
Olavi Louhivuori – drums

Ilmiliekki Quartet, who enjoy a cult status not only in a Finnish but also in an international scale, will return to the stage after several years of low profile. The concert that ends their long break also opens Flame Jazz's autumn season 2014. Like the members, who now stand at the frontline of Finnish music scene, the group has undergone a process of maturation. The return to Ilmiliekki’s coolly Scandinavian sonic landscape has been very inspiring, say the group members. Ilmiliekki’s repertoire comes mainly from the pen of trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, one of the most internationally successful Finnish jazzers, but the concert will feature compositions by drummer Olavi Louhivuori and pianist Tuomo Prättälä, the latter of whom is perhaps the hottest Finnish soul artist of the day. True to their style, they have incorporated some loans as well, this time from Queen and Feist.

Ilmiliekki Quartet’s name became familiar to the audience in 2002 when the group won the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition. In 2004 the band was selected as the Young Artist by Finland Festivals and trumpeter Pohjola was honoured with the Artist of the Year prize at Pori Jazz Festival. In the same year their debut March of the Alpha Males was nominated in the Emma Awards and the group was granted the Teosto award. Their sophomore, Take It With Me (TUM Records 2006), was noted in international circles and took the group all the way to New York to play at Lincoln Center and to various clubs in London. In autumn 2009 they recorded an album of Swedish folk songs with vocalist Emma Salokoski, which was accompanied by a collaborative tour.