Jouni Järvelä, Lenny Pickett, Pepa Päivinen & Jonatan Sarikoski - Jouni's Pipe Dream (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

What do you call music for a quartet of three reed players with a drummer, music with not just a backbeat—and complex funk rhythms—but swagger, contrapuntal lines from warm, soulful saxophones played with a hip strut? According to saxophonist and composer Lenny Pickett, “It's chamber music. Chamber music with mixed winds and percussion.”

That’s the music on the new album of new music by Pickett and Finnish saxophonist and composer Jouni Järvelä Jouni’s Pipe Dream, released by Järvelä on the new Jouni’s Pipe Dreams label . Pickett and Järvelä composed the music (ten and three pieces, respectively), but the album as a whole is a collaboration of the whole ensemble, completed by reed player Pepa Päivinen and drummer Jonatan Sarikoski. The four have been frequent musical partners over the past fifteen years, which comes through in the camaraderie and mastery of the playing.

Jouni’s Pipe Dream is also something of a rarity; a full album from Pickett, the former star tenor sax soloist in Tower of Power, and long-time music director of the Saturday Night Live band. Joining a small, potent discography that includes Lenny Pickett with the Borneo Horns (Hannibal, 1987), The Prescription with UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra (Random Act Records, 2014), and Bad Dreams (Lenny Pickett Music, 2017), the album is a chance to hear this phenomenal, powerful player close up, every inflection and nuance of timbre full of meaning, excitement, and satisfaction.

Talking about the album, both Pickett and Järvelä emphasize the chamber music idea. Pickett points out that, “it's similar to quartet writing in that the cueing is all internal. There's no conducting, we cue each other at different points along the way for stylistic variation, we listen to each other for articulation and for dynamics. And in just the same way that in a string quartet cueing is going on.” Järvelä chimes in on how the multiple voices have a near-baroque structure, adding that “bits and pieces from here and there overlap.” Talking about the interplay of the rhythms and contrapuntal lines, he adds, “It is quite amazing how big, like a full orchestra, a saxophone trio can sound.”

Tracklist:
01. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion I
02. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion II
03. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion III
04. Clarinet Trio IV
05. '80s Pop for L.P.
06. Clarinet Trio V
07. Jonatan Sarikoski
08. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion VI
09. Clarinet Trio VI
10. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion IV
11. Music for Three Saxophones & Percussion V
12. kathykathy
13. Seven and a Half


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