KIRKE KARJA / MATHIAS EICK QUINTET (Norway)
Wednesday 26. February 19:00
Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia suur saal
Winter jazz 2020
KIRKE KARJA / MATHIAS EICK QUINTET (Norway)
Winter jazz focuses on concerts by ECM Records artists and Estonian musicians. Norwegian shining trumpeter Mathias Eick will be heard alongside pianist Kirke Karja’s solo project and the combination of Kirke and Mathias promises to be a challenge.
Members:
Kirke Karja is an outstanding jazz musician of her generation, who is known for playing with many different musicians and is also the chairman of the Estonian Jazz Association. She has graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater with a BA in Classical Piano and a Master’s Degree in Jazz. She has also studied composition and freelance improvisation and is currently pursuing PhD at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater among working as a freelance musician. In 2014 she received the Young Jazz Talent Award.
Kirke Karja is a leader in several ensembles: Pae Collective, the Kirke Karja Quartet and the international ensemble Captain Kirke and The Klingons. Kirke Karja Quartet has performed at prestigious festivals like 12points, Jazzahead! and Tampere Jazz Happening and others, as well as being awarded the Jazz Ensemble of the Year 2018.
The new focus is on her solo career: “I have been playing for a long time as a jazz musician. This is strange because I have been studying classical piano for a long time and have spent many hours alone on stage. For me, some of the best concerts by solo artists like trumpet player Axel Dörner and drummer Etienne Nillesen, have been the most impressive experiences. Two years ago I started writing music for the piano more intensely because I wanted to overcome my fears and it turned out to be a very exciting process. The initial fear turned to the opposite. The lack of bandmates turned out to be a big plus, as I was able to go wherever I wanted with my music. Now I have completely different choices and options – my head works in a completely different way. The piano is such a rich instrument and discovering it is an endless process. I find it very exciting. A very special feeling arises in the new concert hall of EAMT. Whether it is caused by a great piano or the completion of a long-awaited hall – I do not know exactly. But being there, the perception of the size of our music culture is very different and the feeling is very warm.”
Members:
Trumpeter, composer and bandleader Mathias Eick has for a long time been named one of the world’s major jazz talents. With his fourth release on renowned ECM Records he is well on his way to make a home run. While his earlier editions and musicianship have been characterized by a life spent travelling, constantly heading towards new goals and destinations, the album Ravensburg witnesses a mature artist finding his unique and distinguished musical expression. The album is a voyage back home, a reflection on his life situation, with music as an important impetus and his family as a foundation. About Ravensburg he muses: “My inspiration has been my family, my beloved, my little children who never stop to amaze me, and all the emotional situations we experience on the stage where we mostly hang around, that is home”.
Eick has been awarded prestigious prizes, like the International Jazz Festival Organization’s “International Jazz Talent” prize, the Statoil scholarship and the DNB-prize. Having finished his education at NTNU Trondheim’s jazz studies, he soon gained success working with artists like Trondheim Jazz Orchestra and Chick Corea, Jaga Jazzist, Iro Haarla, Many Katché, Elvira Nikolaisen and Jacob Young. In 2008 Eick released his first solo album on ECM, The Door, followed by tours around the world with various constellations and projects. As trumpeter, vibraphonist, double bass player, guitarist or piano player he has performed on far more than 100 recordings.
The eminent Ravensburg sextet include two drummers, Torstein Lofthus and Helge Andreas Norbakken, bass player Audun Erlien, piano player Andreas Ulvo and violinist Håkon Aase together with Eick himself. His fourth album has also been the most challenging in his career so far. The result is an album where emotions stick to every breath.