PORI JAZZ 2023 - POP MEETS JAZZ, AND THE JAZZ IS REALLY GOOD

There was a golden sculpture of a naked woman lying horizontally on the empty main stage of Pori Jazz on Friday, mid-July.

A group of young adults were nodding their heads to pop-flavored rap songs that the speakers were pumping for background music while the low rays of the evening sun reflected from the sculpture’s buttocks.

What would later happen alongside the plastic stage prop remained unclear. But we became aware that it belonged to British singer Sam Smith, an openly homosexual man known for, among other things, composing the track “Man I Am” to the movie soundtrack of the recently released, Barbie, where, according to the lyrics of Mr. Smith, Ken has “crossed the borderline,” apparently with other Kens.

But, wait a minute … what does this have to do with jazz?

As far as I can tell, nothing.

But that’s not the point: Pori Jazz has at least for the past few years aimed to book some of the “hottest” contemporary pop artists to maximize the pull of the masses and, thus, to maximize the revenue. It’s just business, baby.

Ok … it seems that we are, indeed, rolling … but let’s spin back to Friday afternoon when we caught a brilliant performance by an American group Endea Owens & The Cookout on The Seagull Stage, or perhaps better known as Lokkilava.

The stage rises on green neatly cut grass, and the crowd sitting in the middle is encircled by birches. Sometimes birds fly by and accompany the bands with their singing and coos.

This folks if any is the perfect setting for jazz!

When Owens, the bassist, and the players appeared on stage around 30 minutes late it didn’t seem to matter. The host on the stage promised the good folks in attendance a “full show, no matter what” and that “if it’s good, it’s worth waiting.”

And while no one received any explanation for the late schedule that typically in Pori Jazz runs like clockwork, we got to enjoy some of the best of contemporary jazz when the group finally appeared on stage.

They played a head-nodding original “Feel Good,” and covers like Pharaoh Sanders’ “The Creator Has A Master Plan,” where singers and dancers Jay Ward and Shenel Johns got to dance and sing:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah / Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah …

/ The creator has a master plan

Peace and happiness for every man …. After both songs, the crowd went crazy with cheers.

On Saturday, we also learned that the main stage, thanks to the almighty, was not reserved for pop stars only.

An absolute highlight of the festival was an American jazz trio of whom each and everyone would do and does fine just on their own.

Bassist Christian McBride has caught around eight Grammys for playing on hundreds of albums.

Rhiannon Giddens, who plays violin, banjo and sings with a lush and sometimes coruscant voice on folk albums of her own, is one heck of a singer.

Pianist (and what I’ve been told a multi-instrumentalist) Francesco Turrisi is of a different breed in a way that not many, if none, contemporary jazz pianists I have heard live or on record, can come close to the sensitive ear for similar beautiful harmonies of the late legendary pianist, Bill Evans.

Turrisi was the backbone in transforming the songs from the 1920s to the 2000s into spine-shivering treats. Turrisi’s tender touch on “At the Purchaser’s Option” turned the Giddens’ original into one of the beautiful sad songs heard by yours truly:

You can take my body / You can take my bones

You can take my blood / But not my soul

The tears! The delight!

The group played a wonderful rendition of Ethel Water’s “Under the Harlem Moon (1933).”

Blues pianist Jimmy Cox’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” composed in 1923, was laid upon the crowd with a gigantic smile by bassist McBride, and while Giddens’ sang “When you finally get back upon your feet again / Everybody wants to be your good old long-lost friend … ,” she also managed to convey a happier tone into this blues-classic, which gave a ying-yang vibe that the crowd appreciated with cheers.

The trio, however, would not leave the gig with a sad note.

They finished with a joyful interpretation of a traditional gospel song “Up Above My Head (1941).” The audience was screaming and jumping. Some even danced.

“It’s wonderful to see so many happy faces in the crowd!” we heard a presenter of the festival shouting on the stage while we were leaving the performance with a heart rate of a hummingbird.

It would still be two hours until the next performer that we would truly go and listen, so we opted to swill down a beer or two after being inspired by the crowd that was now rushing and pushing through the gates while talking and gesturing wildly, spilling white wine all over the grass and gravel.

Two hours later, we caught Melissa Aldana & UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra playing on Lokkilava.

Aldana is a Chilean saxophonist, a virtuoso, who blows a smooth sound out of a tenor without the sax sounding engineered afterward behind the mixing board. What I mean is that Aldana nods, sound and style-wise, toward Sonny Rollins rather than Grover Washington Jr.

Her most recent album and debut on the legendary Blue Note label, 12 Stars (2022), features plenty of catchy licks and melodies but it’s obvious that Aldana tends to lean more toward free improvisation.

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, on the other hand, loves collaborations with skillful, renowned horn and guitar players. When playing on their own, they typically resort to the 40s and 50s big band swing.

In Pori, the orchestra featured 16 players and a conductor. Over a big band background, Aldana exchanged solos with a Finnish saxophonist Sami Leponiemi. This, in fact, was the name of the play; good play.

Some tunes, such as “La Madrina” from Aldana’s Visions (2019), gave material to some abstract interplay and work for the orchestra as well, resulting in sparks and joy within an ensemble that was a bit odd from the get-go. It would be interesting to hear her in a trio setting.

After Aldana’s set, while walking toward the big stage, we were once again confronted by the wild middle-aged crowd swilling drinks and talking in cacophony.

They were already pretty well into it, while there were still two and a half hours for Robbie Williams to begin his set.

We are sure that they and the 35,000 people in attendance on Saturday had a great time listening to “Hey Wow Yeah Yeah.”

Boy boy boy girl girl girl clap your hands /

Clap your hands if you wanna wanna /

Boy boy boy girl girl girl clap your hands /

Clap your hands if you wanna wanna . . . .