Stick with the familiar. That’s the mantra here and a lightness of touch whether in the mellow version of ‘Hymne à l’amour‘ sung so stirringly by Céline Dion at last year’s Olympics in Paris or the stately version of a slice of core Ellingtonia ‘In a Sentimental Mood’ deftly unpeeled. The latter is a solo version from the Finnish piano icon Iiro Rantala, one of continental Europe’s biggest jazz stars. Pianists as very different to Rantala as Gonzalo Rubalcaba on Borrowed Roses and Michael Wollny on Ghosts have interpreted the classic Ellington piece in recent years. Rantala’s is more a centrist dad kind of treatment than either.
The trio bassist Kaisa Mäensivu best heard on the version of Isham Jones 1930s classic ‘There is No Greater Love’ – he’s quite Paul Chambers-like, thinking of Chambers‘ fine version of the song with Wynton Kelly inspire such a connection – and drummer Morten Lund enter the picture not exactly thunderously but certainly enthusiastically on ‘Beautiful Love.’
Dans le bleu de toute l’immensité
Dans le ciel, plus de problème
Mon amour, crois-tu qu’on s’aime?
Dieu réunit ceux qui s’aiment
– from ‘Hymne à l’amour’ (1950)
by Édith Piaf and Marguerite Monnot
The comfort of the classic material in these hands isn’t cloying but a communion with the past. And it has the feeling of a celebration. Only the 18th century traditional children’s lullaby ‘Fais dodo Colas mon p’tit frère’ sung in France and Quebec may be relatively unfamiliar to rosbif ears among the spread of material.
Trinity was recorded in a French château, the same place as the marvellous Lars Danielsson album Trio issued by the same label last year. But not everything works. I wasn’t keen on the overly jaunty arrangement of ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ or the uninspiring take on Charlie Chaplin classic ‘Smile’. Nevertheless beyond subjectivity Rantala is a dazzling pianist who approaches jazz firmly from the vantage point of the middle of the road. He is extremely convincing whether here or as he proved live in Sligo venue the Model some years ago when he played a fully solo gig. By the end of Trinity all I could think about was the love displayed everywhere and turned to some of the words to the Édith Piaf classic again for extra value. You may well, dear reader, take that wondrous melody away with you too thanks to the formidable Finn.
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