2012 Umeå Jazz Festival

[jkelman]

My review of the 2012 Umeå Jazz Festival, today at All About Jazz.

Nestled on estuary in Northern Sweden, the town of Umeå may be small, but when it comes to it's annual jazz festival - curated, for the 22nd of its 44 years by Lennart Strömback - it thinks big, with tremendous. roster that included Americans like Kenny Garrett and Pat Martino, the American/Norwegian collaboration of vibraphonist Mike Mainieri's Northern Lights, Norwegian groups like In the Country and the duo of singer Tone Åse and percussionist Thomas Strønen, and a newly commissioned piece by Finnish pianist Iro Haarla and her quintet (Trygve Seim, Hayden Powell, Ulf Krokfors and Mikko Kallio) in collaboration with the town's tremendous symphony orchestra (recorded for future release on ECM). There was also focus on younger groups and Swedish artists, including singer Isabel Sörling's tremendous group, Farvel, and the UK's energetic World Service Project.

It was a great year; read the review here.