Eric Ineke & Pekka Pylkkanen - Nordic Bop (2022)

I am very happy, that after all these years we finally have this album finished! We had a great time recording the music (and even now, when working on finalizing it). I’m looking forward to playing with you all again, hopefully in the very near future! I will let Eric tell the story of this album….
Pekka Pylkkanen, Aegina Island, April 2022

When Pekka Pylkkänen invited me in 2017 to play a couple of concerts with him in Finland and Estonia, I immediately responded with an enthusiastic YES!! Having played together before, I knew the music would be great and swinging! On piano, we had the pleasure of having the wonderful and hard-swinging piano player Mikael Jakobsson from Finland and the young and very talented bass player Heikko Remmel from Tallinn, Estonia.

Pekka got the idea of putting together a repertoire of tunes written by some of the great Jazz legends I played with during my earlier career. During the concerts, we all felt that it worked out really well and that we should at least put some of the repertoire in the can for the right moment to release it on CD.

Well, that moment came five years later. Recorded in this beautiful studio of the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki; a real straight-ahead swinging Jazz album finally saw the light. I have a close connection with at least five of the tunes, because I toured in the past with their composers. ‘Amsterdam after Dark’ is written by the legendary tenor saxophonist George Coleman. I had the pleasure of playing with him for a week in 1974, together with Rob Agerbeek and Rob Langereis, and it was an incredible experience: George was at the top of his game every night. Luckily one of the concerts was recorded and got released years later, on the Blue Jack Label.

‘Luminescence’ brought me back to the eminent professor of Bop, Mr. Barry Harris. For more then 15 years I backed him up when he came to teach (always for a week) at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. One of those concerts was recorded and got also released on CD. I have great memories of working with him when we played for a week in St Petersburg in Russia during the White Nights Festival in 2007. Playing with Barry was a true education in Bebop!

‘Left Alone’ was written by pianist Mal Waldron whom I played with on a festival in Belgium in the nineties with the Ben van den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet. This very quiet man and profound musician, combined with this furious Hardbop quintet was an unforgettable experience.

‘Montmarte’, written by the great Dexter Gordon, brings back to me one my best experiences of my whole career. In 1972 I got a call from promoter Wim Wigt to go on an almost 3 months tour with this legendary giant together with the Rein de Graaff Trio. I was 25 years old and it was at that moment, that I entered the University of Hardbop!

‘Signal’ is a very hip and modern-sounding tune written by the legendary and impeccable guitar player Jimmy Raney. He recorded that tune in 1951 with Stan Getz at Storyville in Boston. That recording became a landmark and sure is still one my all-time favorite albums! I was thrilled when I received a request from the producer Gerry Teekens in 1977 to play a radio concert in Lausanne with Jimmy and his son Doug Raney. They were on tour, and Jimmy had a serious argument with his drummer back then, whom Jimmy ended up firing, so I was in. From the first note we played at the soundcheck, Jimmy gave me a look and smiled at me, and after the concert he told he really liked my playing very much. That led me to do all his tours in Europe for the 3 consecutive years, as well as the first recording for Criss Cross Records in 1981 (called ‘Raney 81’) with his son Doug and the great Danish bass player Jesper Lundgaard. All those great moments with these legendary giants are with me all the time, and I am very happy and thankful that Pekka took this initiative to get this wonderful project together!
Enjoy!

Eric Ineke, The Hague March 2022