“…extraordinary music…(Reijonen’s) playing is deep and profoundly nuanced throughout.”
— Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player
“Reijonen’s musical universe has no frontiers.
It is a beautiful, sensual mosaic of traditions and influences.”
— Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz
“Musical cultures and sensibilities cross, evocatively... without blinking or apologizing.”
— Josef Woodward, DownBeat
It is said that music does not lie in the notes themselves but between them, and it is exactly in that space where Boston-based Finnish fretless/fretted guitarist and oudist JUSSI REIJONEN‘s music thrives and blossoms. His critically acclaimed and Independent Music Award -nominated 2013 album, un, was a lifelong musical journey in the making – a journey that has spanned over three decades and four continents, and which has taken him from his native Northern Finland to years spent living in the Middle East, East Africa, and now the United States....
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“…extraordinary music…(Reijonen’s) playing is deep and profoundly nuanced throughout.”
— Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player
“Reijonen’s musical universe has no frontiers.
It is a beautiful, sensual mosaic of traditions and influences.”
— Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz
“Musical cultures and sensibilities cross, evocatively... without blinking or apologizing.”
— Josef Woodward, DownBeat
It is said that music does not lie in the notes themselves but between them, and it is exactly in that space where Boston-based Finnish fretless/fretted guitarist and oudist JUSSI REIJONEN‘s music thrives and blossoms. His critically acclaimed and Independent Music Award -nominated 2013 album, un, was a lifelong musical journey in the making – a journey that has spanned over three decades and four continents, and which has taken him from his native Northern Finland to years spent living in the Middle East, East Africa, and now the United States.
Where un brought together five seasoned musicians from Finland, Turkey, Sweden, Palestine and Spain to pay tribute to the traditions of American and Scandinavian jazz as well as the folk musics of the Middle East and Africa, Reijonen’s wandering muse has more recently found a home in that most symbiotic of musical constellations: the trio. With Jussi Reijonen: trï, the Finnish musician has begun to explore new sounds and shades of his handwriting in a more stripped down, naked setting.
With Reijonen joined by his long-time collaborator, pianist Utar Artun from Turkey, as well as Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash, the music of trï takes on the form of a fascinating multi-cultural collage where the open spaces and silences of Scandinavia effortlessly rub shoulders with the maqamat of the Arab world and the rhythmic richness of India and West Africa, creating a truly enchanting musical mosaic.
Born in Rovaniemi, a small town on the Arctic Circle in northern Finland and moving between Finnish Lapland, the Middle East and East Africa, Reijonen has spent his life soaking up the sounds of various cultures. He studied music at the Pop & Jazz Konservatorio in Helsinki, as well as at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory in Boston where he earned his Master’s degree in the groundbreaking Contemporary Improvisation Department.
While living in Finland, he played with the country’s top artists; he has also performed in the USA, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, France and Lebanon with top names such as jazz drummer Jack deJohnette, legendary flamenco singer Pepe de Lucia, multiple Grammy Award-winning flamenco guitarist and producer Javier Limón, Palestinian oud/violin master Simon Shaheen, fretless guitar pioneer David Fiuczynski, Turkey’s gypsy clarinet legend Hüsnü Senlendirici, and Lebanese nay virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist Bassam Saba, among many others.
Reijonen’s new trio shares an impressive resume that reads like a who’s-who of jazz and world music: the members have performed with the likes of Ron Carter, Maria Schneider, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bobby McFerrin, Javier Limón, Simon Shaheen and Alejandro Sanz. With the music of trï, they create a compelling modern world music sound for an increasingly multi-cultural world.
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