Iro Haarla – piano and harp
Hayden Powell – trumpet
Trygve Seim – saxophones
Uffe Krokfors – double bass
Jon Christensen – drums
Iro Haarla is a Finnish pianist, harpist and composer, who besides her recent work on ECM, is well known for collaborations with drummer Edvard Vesala, to whom she was also married.
Hayden Powell now regularly plays in Iro Haarla’s quintet, after recently inheriting the trumpet spot from Mathias Eick. He says it’s a joy to play Iro’s beautifully written two-part melody lines together with with some of his favorite musicians. Powell’s first gigs with the band were in November 2011, and several festivals are booked for the summer of 2012. Before Hayden joined, the quintet released two albums on ECM, Northbound (2006) and Vespers (2011).
Read more about Iro Haarla at ECM
- Playing with Iro Haarla Quintet
I recently had the pleasure of playing two gigs with Iro Haarla, a Finnish pianist and harpist who has two really good albums out on ECM. We played at November Festival in Hertugenbosch (NL) and a week later in Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Both gigs were sold out and it was great playing with the band, which includes Trygve Seim, saxophones, Uffe Krokfoss, bass, and Jon Christensen, drums. These are musicians I’ve listened to a lot on records so even though we hadn’t rehearsed much I quickly felt comfortable on stage. Iro writes really beautiful compositions and I can really recommend her two albums, Northbound and Vespers, which both feature some really good trumpet playing by Mathias Eick, who used to play in the band. I’d also like to thank everyone I met in Holland and Poland for taking really good care of us and to Uncle Mike and Auntie Sue for coming out to Hertugenbosch to hear the band!
