Iiro Rantala - My Working Class Hero (CD)

Release Date: 08/28/15

With genius, wit and touching passages, Iiro Rantala opens new doors to John Lennons universe.

A homage to John Lennon. In this tribute, Rantala turns to the musician who is perhaps greatest of all of his ‘lost heroes’. “I heard John Lennon before I knew anything about jazz” says Rantala, “’Happy Xmas, War Is Over’ was my first encounter with his music when I sang it in the school choir at a Christmas concert. Even then, it took my breath away. How is it, I wondered, that this guy can write something quite so simple and yet so powerful?” That same combination of simplicity and strength is perhaps also the greatest attribute of Rantala himself. Throughout the whole album, what may well sound effortless is in fact the result of a long and exacting process by which Rantala has worked scrupulously on transforming the original material. The task they have given themselves has been to take world-famous songs, simple works of genius such as “Imagine”, “Woman” or “All You Need Is Love,” and adapt them in a way that something new emerges, while preserving the essence of each composition. In this, Rantala has succeeded in ways that are endlessly surprising. Sometimes he ventures forth and distances himself from the original in order to re-tell its story. On other occasions he might stay close to a theme or a melody, but let it appear in a new harmonic context. What emerges is music direct from the heart and the soul, steeped in groove and melody, combining humour and sadness, which delves into the intellectual depths, and yet always emerges with a sly nudge and a wink. The solo recording “My Working Class Hero” is a dialogue with many dimensions: between Rantala and the instrument, between the room and its acoustics, with jazz legacy and pop history, and plainly between the pianist and his icon John Lennon. ...John Lennon's star will shine on brightly for ever.