Ostensibly a quintet studio recording at its core made in Brooklyn last summer led by bassist Kaisa Mäensivu – who writes all the tunes – the main instrumentation is guitar, vibes, piano, double bass and drums.
The looseness and alive quality that the quintet achieves makes me think of Phronesis a little although that’s not an exact match given that the Danish/Swedish/English band didn’t have vibes in its instrumentation. But certainly the Finn is as formidable a bassist as Jasper Høiby and shares some things in common with him stylistically although the tonalities here aren’t as dark.
Setting off on opener ‘Tykytys’ (”Pulsation” in Finnish) at quite a lick things slow down on ‘Midnight Sun’ (not the glorious Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke 1940s standard of the same name but an original of the leader’s).
Not quite a ballad it has a melody where vibes and bass intertwine and piano plays a subsidiary role. The hazy guitar adds colour while drummer Joe Peri operates a little like the way Kendrick Scott did in his band Oracle.
‘Moon Waves’ led off by Mäensivu is a gem and is the key reflectively probing piece.
Is there another word for this kind of thoughtful piece?
A reverie, maybe.
However one terms it, certainly the album is full of a sense of peacefulness and that is one of its strongest suits.
The guitar contributions give that piece an Americana/contemporary sheen which helps keep the sound current. Moving Parts is not at all a retro conception.
Mäensivu grew up in Helsinki, studied at the Sibelius Academy and later the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In 2018, she won the Riga Jazz Stage bass competition and was named Rising Star at the Pori Jazz Festival, Finland’s most prestigious jazz festival.
Her album Taking Shape, which came out two years ago, also featured several returning players here in Berliner, Light, Ladin and Peri among the personnel while the sax role that time around was filled by Gregory Porter saxophonist Tivon Pennicott. Going further back the bassist-composer’s first Kaisa’s Machine album In the Key of K preceded Taking Shape by some 6 years.
The least successful part of the album is the Eurovision-esque vocal, sung in Finnish, so more for the market back home primarily – no idea what the lyrics mean so this is a bit of a disadvantage. The singer here Maja Mannila features on this the penultimate track called ‘Satama’ (a Finnish word for ”port” or ”harbour”). Its redeeming feature is when the singer scats later on.
Sax star Melissa Aldana – whose Blue Note album Echoes of the Inner Prophet came out last year – features on the third track ‘Origin Story.’
So pretty good overall especially for the writing but skip the vocal track. ‘Moon Waves’ and ‘Origin Story’ featuring Aldana work best.
