Finnish Ilmiliekki Quartet returns to Australia & New Zealand July/August

[Jouko]

With some of the best new jazz from Europe's urban edge, jazz group ILMILIEKKI from Finland returns to Australia and New Zealand between 28 July and 6 August to perform at 8 destinations.

This superb Finnish combo has, since 2002, impressed all the right crowds and all the right critics while producing some of Europe's best new jazz. Since their debut album March of the Alpha Males in 2003, Ilmiliekki has won several highly coveted awards and their 2007 album, Take It With Me, made The Observer's list of the year's best albums. The Ilmiliekki Quartet flirt with pop without losing their urban edge, while drawing on inspiration from the many side-projects and solo gigs each member maintains. With his award winning project Aurora in 2009, leader/trumpeter Verneri Pohjola won the Emma Ward (the Finnsh jazz Grammy) for Best Jazz Musician of the Year.



Tuomo Prattala – piano, Verneri Pohjola – trumpet, Olavi Louhivuori – drums, Antti Lotjonen – bass

- www.myspace.com/ilmiliekki - www.myspace.com/verneripohjola

Fri 29 July: - Brisbane - Queensland Music Festival - Brisbane Jazz Club - www.qmf.org.au
Sat/Sun 30/31 July: Tasmania - Devonport Jazz Festival - www.devonportjazz.com
Sun 31 July: - Melbourne - Bennettslane  - www.bennettslane.com - Melb Jazz Co-op - www.mjc.org.au
Mon 01 Aug: WA - Perth Jazz Society - Charles Hotel - www.perthjazzsociety.com
Tue 02 Aug: WA - Perth Edith Cowan University - workshop - www.waapa.ecu.edu.au
Wed 03 Aug: ACT - Canberra - Embassy of Finland - www.finland.org.au
Thu 04 Aug: NSW - Sydney - 505 Jazz Club - Surry Hills - www.venue505.com
Sat 06 Aug: New Zealand - Taranaki International Festival of the Arts - www.artsfest.co.nz

'... awesome trumpet playing - real poetry..' -  Ken Pickering, president Federation Canadian Jazz Festivals'..
'.. led by remarkable trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, 'Ilmiliekki' translates as the 'igniting flame', but the fire that animates these musicians is of a subtle, burnished kind. Their Wangaratta festival sets certainly contained moments of dramatic and rhytmic intensity..' - Jessica Nicholas, The Age (Nov'08)