| Jazz |
Iiro Rantala: In Search of the Perfect Standard
Before being hailed as one of Europe’s most brilliant pianists, Iiro Rantala was, and remains, a composer above all else: a restless spirit who allows inspiration to seep in from wherever and whenever it chooses. His curiosity is his compass. On this new trio recording, he takes on some of the best-known pieces in the jazz canon and turns them into something at once familiar and completely his own. The process is not one of simple interpretation but of transformation, he kneads and reshapes the material until it breathes anew. Behind the keyboard, Rantala becomes a magician of sound, conjuring fresh textures and emotions from melodies we thought we knew by heart.
It helps that he’s joined by two partners whose brilliance equals his own. Together, they create a chemistry that feels spontaneous, generous, and joyfully unpredictable, the mark of musicians who trust one another implicitly. That sense of trust has roots in history. In 2012, Rantala reached out to Danish drummer Morten Lund to record My History of Jazz. “Since then,” he recalls, “I’ve been more convinced than ever that Morten is the best bassist in Europe. And for a simple reason: he’s soaked in the long and illustrious jazz tradition of Copenhagen. He’s worked with players who performed alongside Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, almost everyone. He’s inherited that whole history.”
Rantala’s ongoing search has never been about style or genre. For him, the only real questions are form and substance, what he builds, and what meaning lies beneath it. Trinity, the title itself, one suspects, carries a playful double meaning typical of Rantala, was born out of an encounter during the pandemic. Bassist Kaisa Mäensivu met him at a jam session in Helsinki, and although she’s based in New York, the connection proved lasting. Last December, Rantala invited her to join him in performing at the Finnish president’s official Independence Day celebration at Mäntyniemi, in Helsinki. “Morten, Kaisa, and I had never played together before the Château Palmer concert,” he explains. “And I had never recorded a standards album with a piano trio. Normally you rehearse, play a few gigs, maybe a short tour before you go into the studio. Not this time.”
That leap into the unknown gives Trinity its pulse. It’s an album not only of passion but of encounter, of three musicians meeting at the intersection of instinct and trust. You can hear Rantala playing more freely than usual, as though he deliberately left space for his partners to shape the arrangements alongside him. The result is a record of conversation rather than command, full of subtle exchanges and spontaneous discoveries.
Once the chemistry was there, the next question was repertoire. Rantala decided on a program of standards, a first for him, and one that carries a quiet sense of destiny. “I’d been thinking about it for years,” he says. “At some point, you have to pay homage to this repertoire. It’s the foundation, the way a classical pianist must one day face the toccatas of Bach or the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. But I’ve always felt jazz pianists should probably not start there. The weight of history, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, can be intimidating. Still, I wanted to approach the standards without the usual urge to over-arrange or re-harmonize, without turning a waltz into a 5/4 exercise. I wanted to play them in the purest possible form.”
To make that purity clear, Rantala resisted the temptation to unearth obscure tunes. Instead, he chose the most familiar ones, those that leave no place to hide. In doing so, he lets the listener hear the subtle signature he brings to each piece, the way a great wine reveals the truth of its terroir.
That transparency is the essence of Rantala’s art. He could take almost any theme, a folk song, a pop melody, a nursery rhyme, and make it glow with his distinctive touch. But there is never a trace of arrogance in his playing. What drives him is not virtuosity for its own sake, but the desire to share, to connect. Here, the sharing happens not only between artist and audience, but among the musicians themselves, three distinct sensibilities weaving a common fabric.
The result is music of quiet beauty and poetic precision, filled with humor, empathy, and the kind of unguarded sincerity that has become Rantala’s hallmark. Trinity is not just an album of standards; it’s a reminder that even the most familiar songs can still surprise us, when played by an artist who understands that the real standard is not the song, but the soul behind it.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, October 15th 2025
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Musicians:
iiro Rantala: piano
Kaisa Mäensivu: double bass
Morten Lund: drums
Track Listing :
01 Prolog: Arrivée au Château 00:19
02 Hymne à l’Amour (Édith Piaf / Marguerite Monnot) 03:52
03 I Love You (Cole Porter) 03:14
04 In a Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington) 05:05
05 Beautiful Love 03:40 (Wayne King / Victor Young / Egbert Van Alstyne)
06 Fais Dodo, Colas Mon P’tit Frère (Traditional) 03:45
07 The Days of Wine and Roses (Henry Mancini) 03:44
08 There Is No Greater Love (Isham Jones) 04:39
09 Blue in Green (Miles Davis / Bill Evans) 03:06
10 Scrapple from the Apple (Charlie Parker) 04:23
11 Smile (Charlie Chaplin) 03:48
12 There Will Never Be Another You (Harry Warren) 07:02
Recorded at Château Palmer in Margaux-Cantenac, France, May 19–22, 2025
Recorded by Arnaud Houpert
Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
Produced by Andreas Brandis