FIVE CORNERS QUINTET
Chasin' The Jazz Gone By

Milan Records

Listening to Helsinki’s Five Corners Quintet instantly transports the listener back to a time when jazz was still hip and cool, despite the advent of rock n’ roll. The group’s CD, Chasin’ The Jazz Gone By is a sumptuous concoction that includes everything from Bacharach-esque orchestral swing to hard bop to crooner cool to greasy Latin soul. And that’s only a few of the disc’s dozen tracks (plus the bonus track “Taxi Driver,” a suite of Bernard Herrmann music composed for the film score).

Here’s the thing: the group is two different animals live and on disc. Live, they play as a quintet, reproducing their swinging tunes perfectly well, as sold out performances in clubs across the European continent can attest. On the CD, they are supplemented with a variety of guest instrumentalists, a string section, and vocalists Okou and Mark Murphy. In addition, composer, producer and arranger Tuomas Kallio puts a delicately modern sheen on everything with contemporary production techniques and the occasional sample or loop. It’s easily the best mix of classic jazz and modern dance music production since St. Germain’s Tourist. But even though Tourist sought to blur the boundaries between sampled and live elements, it was still primarily an electronic dance record. Chasin’ the Jazz Gone By is a serious jazz album utilizing some modern production techniques.

The audience for this recording has got to be enormous—it should appeal with equal ease to jazz fans, older pop music fans, young urbanites, suburban dwellers, and electronic/dance fans. Like Bebel Gilberto’s Tanto Tempo, Chasin’ the Jazz Gone By is an album that seems as though it should be the CD reissue of some long-lost vinyl gem rather than a contemporary release. Yet it cannot be dismissed as merely an exercise in retroism.

Five Corners opens with the smooth, cool sound of vibes and a touch of Gerry Mulligan-esque baritone sax that perfectly supports Okou’s vocal. At times Okou evokes Dionne Warwick, while the string and French horn laden arrangement gives this a Burt Bacharach feel. It immediately transports one to a groovy space, and that continues as the group locks into the groove of “Trading Eights.” This track perfectly outlines the group’s philosophy: get the toes tapping with a groove that invites listeners to the dance floor, then overlay it with sharp, tight mainstream 60s jazz arrangements. It helps mightily that the horn section plays live, not loops, and that there is room for improvisation within the tightly structured arrangements. Listen to trumpeter Jukka Eskola offer a focused solo statement, echoed perfectly by tenor sax player Eero Koivistoinen as they trade eights halfway through the track.

Eternal hipster Mark Murphy checks in on the fourth track, a swinging take on the old Steve Allen chestnut “This Could be the Start of Something.” Not only is it a perfect musical amalgam of the traditional and the new, Murphy’s vocals perfectly convey the playfulness and good humor at the heart of Five Corners’ music. Murphy also sings his original composition “Before We Say Goodbye,” another perfect vehicle for the Finnish quintet. Murphy returns for the track “Jamming (With Mr. Hoagland) on which he mainly declaims the poetic lyrics while the quintet provides a variety of moods in the background. The whole piece is rather reminiscent of the heady days when Beat poets would perform in front of small jazz ensembles.

While Murphy’s contributions to the CD are well done and welcome, the group can hold the listener’s attention perfectly well without a vocalist. “Straight Up” recalls the gospel-drenched bluesy jams of the classic Ramsey Lewis Trio or one of Horace Silver’s Blue Note bands. “Lighthouse” could come directly from one of the era’s classic albums by Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, or any of a long list of other performers from the period considered by many to be jazz music’s heyday. “Unsquare Bossa Nova” kicks off with a choppy organ figure that sounds like one of today’s loungey remix projects, but the sharp horn section figures make it clear that this is a tight live jazz ensemble. Finally, the group’s take on Bernard Herrmann’s Taxi Driver soundtrack closes out the disc with a really fine bonus track.

Chasin' the Jazz Gone By works so well because the musicians who make up the Five Corners Quintet understand the era of jazz music they are trying to evoke, and they do so very well, without resorting to mere sonic imitation. At the same time, they provide a nice modern edge to the proceedings that could help listeners no familiar with classic jazz to overcome their fear of the music. In short, Chasin’ the Jazz Gone By has all the earmarks of a classic: music that honors and evokes the past but remains modern enough that you’ll still be listening to it a few years from now.