Finnish trumpeter Verneri Pohjola's second release for Edition is named for his late father Pekka, bassist with Finnish prog rock heroes Wigwam, but if that suggests any kind of panegyric to a much-loved and influential parent, think again.
Pohjola’s parents divorced when he was two, and he was brought up by his mother to whom this extraordinary record is in fact dedicated. “I don’t really think of Pekka as my father,” writes the trumpeter in the liner notes, “but more as a kind of friend who everyone knows and talks about.” Ouch.
So while the source material may be the father’s tunes, the results – hip, ruminative electric-period Miles meets mid-1970s Kenny Wheeler – are more about the son proving that he is his own man.
