Colin Vallon Trio (CH)

Is it a little strange that the long-standing jazz group of multiple award-winner Colin Vallon has never visited Finland? – Even if out of its six albums, the four latest were released by the German ECM, which is a guarantee of consistent European quality? Perhaps it is. However, it is also true that ensembles consisting of a pianist, double bass player and drummer are two a penny these days, and there may even be an excess supply of them in Finland.

But Vallon (b. 1980), who hails from Switzerland, has actually visited Finland once, even if no one probably knew enough about him to attend that event specifically because of him. In August 2018, he performed on the main stage of the Finnish National Theatre as part of a Swiss theatre group in a work titled Eins Zwei Drei, which drew on buffoonery and mocked power relations. “The men on stage resemble live question marks”, was the heading of the critique in Helsingin Sanomat.

Colin Vallon Trio, which first took the stage in 1999, is unlikely to present any major question marks, as the group’s trio jazz aligns with the well-known European tradition: their mainly lyrical and melancholic music highlights collectivity. Above all, this group is a single unit, even if some of the musicians have come and gone over the years: Swiss Patrice Moret (b. 1972) has played the double bass since 2005, and Swiss Julian Sartorius (b. 1981) the drums since 2012.

The trio’s latest album, Samares, was released in November 2024 and featured a leafless tree on its cover. All pieces on it have once more been composed by Vallon – the Finnish translations of the French titles include Root, Branch and Stump. The cover image and album title which refer to autumn may also contain a symbolic message relating to the influence of music. Samare means ‘a dry fruit that does not split open and that has a single wing-like extension for being dispersed by the wind’. Something that you might also find under maple trees in late October.