Timo Lassy

Up north in Finland, in the land of the hottest Saunas, longest winters and saddest tangos, you can also find one of the coolest and most distinguished saxophonist/composers on the jazz-scene today. Timo Lassy, acclaimed as a "rising star" in US jazz bible Downbeat, hits us with 'Love Bullet', his fifth album and his most accomplished studio work to date.

"The entire album is definitely more personal than all my previous work", he says of this sophisticated collection of ten instrumental originals. "It tells a story of the past few colourful years in my life." Having worked with an international all-star cast ranging from the Italian style-master Nicola Conte to US jazz vocalist José James and extending his talents into the art of film-music by composing for the soundtrack of the movie 'Moomins on the Riviera', Lassy created this mysteriously soulful music with his working band in mind, an ensemble that was dubbed "one of Europe's sharpest bands" by the Sunday Times.

Their sonic base is in the 1950s/60s hard bop, Soul Jazz and Latin Jazz tradition, but the masterful execution and the progressive vision of all of the players puts the music firmly in the 21st century. Like the films of fellow Finn Aki Kaurismäki, it exudes an energy and a feeling at once markedly timeless, traditional and tirelessly forward-looking. "Quality swinging jazz with a difference!", as Gilles Peterson calls it.