Live Spot Rag, Kyoto

Jazz pianist Aki Rissanen last year won the Finnish Emma music award for Best Jazz Album of 2016 with the release Amorandom. Veteran US jazz saxophonist Dave Liebman said of the 37-year-old Finnish musician, “One of the best young pianists I’ve heard in years.” The UK newspaper The Guardian described Rissanen and his trio as “a formidable force, with fresh musical intelligence to match flawless techniques.”
Alongside Rissanen in the jazz trio are Antti Lotjonen on bass and Teppo Makynen on drums.
On last year’s award-winning album, the Nordic musician says, “The music…is based on an animation movie to which I composed a soundtrack a few years ago. Although the original music has gone through many stages of transformation, you can still hear a cinematic flavor in it.”

Jazz pianist from Finland