ORGAN FUSION BAND: ROOT & STALK & FLOWER MUSIC

The botanical title is a little clumsy, but luckily this music is not something one might associate with the term "root music"! The latest album by the old fox JUKKA GUSTAVSON doesn't offer anything radically new, but it's always interesting to see how the various familiar ingredients are emphasized. For starters, all lyrics are in English this time, and - also unlike in the album I wrote about last week - the vocals are oriented to singing instead of speaking. These are surely good news especially for non- Finnish listeners.

The mood is mostly happy and relaxed. A good example is the long instrumental 'Message from the Coral Reef', or a shorter one 'In Rainy Weather'. This would be perfect music for a summer evening's outdoor concert. The track with the only Finnish title is a passionate, slow instrumental with delicious parts for flute and organ, and a very vibrating electric piano. Some of the vocal songs reveal a strong influence of Afro-American music (soul, funk, etc), but equally important is the European music tradition rooted in art music. Perhaps the album's greatest delight is 'Classical Stairs and Garden', 17 and ½ minutes of wonderful, effortlessly flowing instrumental Fusion, up there with the best of PEKKA POHJOLA or JUKKA TOLONEN.

In the very tender 'In the Long Wait of the Wedding' Jukka sings the brief lyrics in French! Beautiful arrangement featuring e.g. flute and strings. The groovy but rather peaceful song 'This Elegy Will Always Be' is a decication to a pet cat. It has nice electric piano, and presumably an ud solo by guitarist Pekka Nylund. I notice that I enjoy this album much more than in the first listening. The bluesiest things may not be so much up to my taste, but for once there's not a single irritating track around. This is an extremely solid album with 66 minutes of pure, breathing music that is never left in the shadow of more litarary approach.