Finnish, Helsinki-based tenor sax player-composer-educator (the head of the jazz department at the Sibelius Academy) Jussi Kannaste has been a key part of the local jazz scene for more than twenty years, and has played and recorded with bands such as Antti Lötjönen Quintet East, Mikko Innanen 10+, Jaska Lukkarinen Trio, and with Estonian jazz singer Kadri Voorand. Out Of Self and Into Others is Kannaste’s debut album as a bandleader, featuring fellow Finnish trumpeter Tomi Nikku (of Bowman Trio) and long-time comrade drummer Joonas Riippa, plus Berlin-based Swedish bassist Petter Eldh (of Koma Saxo / Post Koma and Y-OTIS).

The album offers seven original compositions by Kannaste and a short one by Riippa. Kannaste is a mature and experienced composer who knows how to tell a dramatic story with his sax and how to mold the strong-minded voices of the Kannaste4 for the benefit of such stories. The music is rooted in modern jazz, with a few brief and fiery free jazz expressions. Nikku complements Kannaste’s commanding solos, and their interplay is poetic and inspired, especially on such lush and quiet ballads like «The Bridge», «No Name», «It’s All Good», and «Elegy», while the rhythm section of Eldh and Riippa keeps driving the music forward with thoughtful, subtle gestures.

The opening piece, «New Life», existed as a live piece of previous iterations of Kannaste’s live band. Kannaste4 sounds like a working band that has been playing together for years. The Finnish We Jazz label is absolutely right when it says that Out Of Self and Into Others is a product of a deep marinade.

 Eyal Hareuveni

Jussi Kannaste (tenor saxophone), Tomi Nikku (trumpet), Petter Eldh (double bass), Joonas Riippa (drums)