IKKI has recently recorded a new CD called "Riot's Eve".
Made up of musicians from Israel, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands, IKKI emerges from this combination with a new form of spontaneous music. Brought together by the Japanese bass trombone player Matsumoto 'Santi' Kazushi, who also arranges all the music, these musicians create something that can perhaps only be labelled as unsophisticated sentimental powerjazz.
Not being tightly constrained by strict arrangements or conventions, the musicians can freely express themselves. A big influence for IKKI has come from among others Gil Evans, Carla Bley, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kip Hanrahan and Aketagawa Shoji, a Japanese Jazz pianist and ocarina maker/player who wrote the piece Alp.
The group's name, IKKI, is a Japanese word, which originally meant a group of people united under the same spirit, purpose and project. Later, the word developed a more specialised meaning of their demonstration, riot or uprising.
These elements are reflected in the pieces Hasta Siempre and Victor Jara. Hasta Siempre is a popular Cuban song by singer-song writer Carlos Puebla, written to commemorate Ernesto Guevara. Victor Jara Medley combines two pieces by Victor Jara, the Chilean singer-song writer who was murdered during the coup d'état by Pinochet in 1973. El Derecho De Vivir En Paz (The Right to Live in Piece) is played in the beginning and the end, with La Partida (The Departure) in between.
RIOT'S EVE:
1. Riot's Eve
2. Hasta Siempre
3. A Night in Tunesia
4. Alp
5. Victor Jara Medley
6. Outroduction
Matsumoto 'Santi' Kazushi
-- bass trombone
Thijs van Milligen
-- alto sax
Filip Davidse
-- tenor saxophone
Peter Huber -- trumpet
Harpo 't Hart
-- piano
Avishai Roet -- bass
Bernt Nellen -- drums
Recorded on November 1&2, 2007
Power Sound Studio, Amsterdam
Engineer: Michiel Hollanders (Smoked Sounds)
Mastering: Jochem Jacobs (Split Second Sound)
Design: Dafna Linden
