Next gen jazz talents shine at 12 Points Festival at GLiveLab, Tampere, Finland

While it’s well known that in recent years the Finnish jazz scene has emerged, as if from a musical sauna, glowing with health and fresh energy, it might still come as a delightful surprise in this sparsely populated land of lakes and forests to stumble upon an intimate four day event packed tight with a dozen of Europe’s most interesting new bands. And not just that, but to hear them all with a sound quality as clean and pellucid as the air and open skies that stretch from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Arctic circle.

To explain: Since 2007 the 12 Points Festival has been gathering 12 new generation bands from twelve different European countries and presenting them at a single venue, three per night. Not a ‘youth jazz’ project but the crème de la crème of young-ish professional bands likely to be the next wave of artists featuring on international stages across Europe and beyond. Originally conceived and produced in Dublin by Ireland’s Improvised Music Company, this unique project caught the attention of forward looking promoters vying for the opportunity to present the future to their own audiences, such that the Dubliners agreed to take 12 Points to another country once every two years.

This year it was the privilege of Tampere, Finland to host 12 Points. But given the host venue – GLiveLab – the privilege was exceptionally mutual. Opened in 2019 as the sister venue to the GLiveLab of 2016 in Helsinki, the 250 capacity club has a sound system like no other. A miracle of detail and clarity, the system consists of over 70 finely tuned speakers arranged across the room that convey every subtlety of the sound on stage as faithfully as if it were a perfect recording. There could be no better environment in which to experience the diverse talents of some of Europe’s new notables.

And how diverse were those talents? Impossible in a short space to review every gig in detail but an overview or snapshot might start with the Thursday evening and the Karmen Rõivassepp Quartet, led by the eponymous Estonian vocalist with Danish piano/bass/drums colleagues. Beginning the evening programme with what might have felt initially a little too conventional for a ‘new generation’ event, Ms Rõivassepp soon branched out with a set of originals (lyrics in Estonian as well as English) that proved that her classy, beautifully balanced voice could handle exquisite improvisations alongside her impeccably skilled band mates with absolutely none of the unfortunate histrionics that characterise so many lesser vocalists.

Thus already immersed in quality and finesse, the Thursday programme took a sharp left hand turn with the equally skilled pianist Dmitry Golovanov and saxophonist Jan Maksimowicz (above) taking their duo (appropriately titled ‘Beyond’) out into the realms of free improvisation and live electronics. In their continuous 50 minute set, fire and ferocity mingled with gentle reflective lyricism while staccato squeals and squawks led into loping loops and melodic musings.

Last up on Thursday were Italy’s Invisible Painters quartet, led by bassist Ferdinando Romano. The set began with a long recorded excerpt of Martin Luther King Jnr ‘s Let Freedom Ring speech, the emotional power and visceral impact of which stirred the heart and the blood so strongly that it seemed (for this writer at least) difficult to concentrate on the music which followed for several minutes afterwards. Embracing digital electronics (a seemingly constant theme across this year’s 12 Points) alongside the unusual but engaging combination of piano, drums and clarinet, bassist Romano’s compositions included a tune inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s definition of music as ‘The Figuration of Invisible Things’. The final piece of the set skittered and scrambled around instrumentally so much that it was reminiscent of (although not attributed to) Jackson Pollock.

Icelandic composer and electric bassist Ingibjörg Elsa Turchi led her quintet in the first set on Friday in what was a distinct non-electronica minority for this 12 Points. Using only flute, saxophone, guitar and drums to enhance the extensive range of her compositions, leader Turchi made a considerable impression with the way in which – Ellington-like – she wrote for and brought out the best collective improvisation from a hand-picked group of like-minded musicians. Individually and as a band they had their very own voice – a rare distinction even among the assembled company of Europe’s finest.

And the rest? Where to start or stop? The brilliant 5-string electric bassist Karl Tammaru (above) finger-picking and using more pedals than a fleet of cyclists in the Estonian duo Tam Tam; Finnish vocalist Selma Savolainen’s Horror Vacui, surprising with a Billy Strayhorn tune in the middle of an otherwise totally original set; and the unpronounceable, un-spellable Swiss quartet SC’ÖÖF, ending the whole 12 Points event with bonkers noise and urban mayhem, shattering the silence of a Finnish night to the delight of a room full of 12-times-satisfied customers.