A kaleidoscopical musical quest

When you listen to The Five Corners Quintet, you can’t clearly make out whether you’re listening to a Blue Note 60’s soul jazz album or a South American Latin jazz production…they’ve fused it and blended both styles in so well that one minute you’re in one world, and the next you’re in another one. But the transition is so smooth and subtle that they’ve managed to make you feel like it is completely natural. Not bad for this Helsinki-based jazz band’s debut album, called Chasin’ The Jazz Gone By. But in what worlds does this quintet take you to ? Impressions of a kaleidoscopical musical journey:

Well, first there are the horns. Prodigy trumpetist Jukka Eskola is spell binding, enveloping and with just the right amount of groove to tickle your attention and make your head move. But he’s not alone to convey this very 60’s soul jazz atmosphere. There’s the piano and the vibes played by Severi Pyysalo, so upbeat and hyperactive that they make you want to hit the dance floor. You can almost see these two getting a kick at their instrumental battle. Another element is Mark Murphy featuring as a guest vocalist. He sounds like he came straight out of a 60’s musical in Technicolor.

Just when you can easily imagine yourself strolling down a street in New York with Mark Murphy, “Singin’ in the Rain” style, Eskola’s trumpet pulls you straight into a place that could be Copacobana or Acapulco. Teppo Makynen’s drums and percussions bring you to the bar by the dance floor where mojitos flow and tequila shots are drunken Straight Up. Did the quintet imagine the same thing when they gave a title to their 5th track ? Who knows… The xylophone and the piano’s hot vibes keep you out late, many more mojitos later, watching the men in white suits watching the girls’ skirts twirl.

These two universes may seem different but once you listen to The Five Corners Quintet, you’re glad that they’ve mastered the art of making these worlds lusciously flirt with each other. But in the middle of this sunny musical cocktail, this band surprises you with a much deeper, maybe darker touch. The Five Corners Quintet carefully selected the musicians and the featuring vocalists track by track. This could be why the two tracks that seem to explore yet another side of jazz coincidentally include the Parisian-based singer Okou. In the 1st track of the album, her gorgeous and suave voice takes you by a fireplace on a cold winter day, with the crisp white snow outside glimmering in the last rays of the sunlight. This bluesy track is as soft and as smooth as the hot chocolate you are drinking while watching the flames dancing.

The 2nd track featuring Okou is slightly different, but nonetheless a great moment. Here, you can imagine the singer in a dark smoky bar, somewhere in Harlem in the late 30’s. The men are smoking cigars and the women, with short hair and Charleston dresses, press their dark red lips against their wine glasses. Okou transforms herself into a real Swing Kid, with that sensuality and groove in her voice that just make you melt. Finally, the last few minutes with the piano and bass duo, simply highlighted by cool fingers snapping to the rythm, give you an experience of such pure Swing that they leave you screaming for more.

In their chase of the jazz gone by, The Five Corners Quintet not only takes you on a whirlwind of acoustic sensations, they offer blissful moments of such pure unadulterated jazz that just makes you want to scream “Encore !”. And maybe that is precisely what they were aiming for…