Midweek pick, November 27th, 2024: The Music of... Oaagaada

Oaagaada: Music Of…(We Jazz Records)

Sami Pekkola: sax & shruti box
Tuure Tammi: trumpet
Tero Kemppainen: double bass
Simo Laihonen: drums & log drum

Since its start in 2016, the We Jazz Records label has been slowly but surely expanding its scope. Born out of the We Jazz festival, it has since also opened a record and begun publishing a jazz magazine. As a record label, it has grown from releasing mostly Finnish acts to also include musicians and groups from Norway and Sweden, and more recently, musicians from other corners of the world, like Lukas Traxel, Darius Jones, Mike Reed, Amirtha Kidambi, and Peter Evans, whose excellent new trio album on the label, Extra, recorded with Petter Eldh and Jim Black, is a certain to appear on my 2024 favorites list.

But We Jazz has not deserted its roots in the Finnish jazz scene. A recent example being Music Of by the quartet Oaagaada. Based around a classic saxophone, trumpet, double bass and drums set up, their music is loose and free wheeling with strong themes creating foundations for exploratory improvisations and solos. “Appyuan” has a lilting Ornette Coleman resembling feel, the rapid and raucous “Speeds” sounds more like something out of an early 70s Loft Jazz session, while tunes like “Serriterri” and “Seagull Shapes” have slight Eastern and spiritual flavors. The production has a slight lo-fi quality, which gives the album the feel of a rediscovered live recording from a different era. Still, the music, although clearly showing its roots, sounds fresh and lively.