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THE NORDIC JOURNEY CONTINUES

Although he has been restlessly performing both classical and jazz repertoire since the mid 1980s, Villu Veski’s most known project in recent years has been the project Sounds of the Nordic Islands with accordion player Tiit Kalluste.
The duo Veski- Kalluste got its start in 1996, when the Swedish Insitude in Stockholm sent the musicians to the Baltic countries culture festival in Paris.
But it all got the real kick in 1998, when the two men wholeheartedly fell for the rarefied beauty of the introspective, meditative melodies from Faroe Islands. They subsequently immersed themselves in the folk-lore of the entire Northern region, which led to their beautiful 1998 release “Voices of the Northern Islands” (complete with the short yet pithy liner-note by President Lennart Meri, no less). A year later they played that set at Pori Jazz and numerous other festival appearances followed. By today, Veski Kalluste Duo has completed Sounds of the “Nordic Islands II” as a sequel to the first concert programme. In addition to music’s thoughtful/philosophic expressivity springing from duo’s first compositions, several sounds and rhythms have been added maintaining an invisible link between both roots and modern times and representing a key to the musical language of Sounds of the Nordic Islands. Live electronics, ethnic percussion and double bass appear as addition to saxophone and accordion.
A few months ago Veski-Kalluste released the DVD “Tango Nuevo” with recording of their tango-concert with Daniel Piazzolla, the grandchild of legendary Astor. The journey from Nordic Islands continues and the Sound gets worldlier with every turn.
The Jazzkaar 2004 concert, though, will be more intimate and scaled down to the chamber jazz dimension.

Villu Veski founded his own quartet right after graduating from Estonian Music Academy in 1985. Being classically trained saxophone player, he has since then shared his expertise between classical music and jazz events.
Veski’s repertoire includes classical compositions for alto saxophone and large amount of music for saxophone quartet. In the field of jazz he prefers old swing style, etno-jazz and funky-groove.
In 1999, he created music for TV-series “Around the World in 90 Days”, which have been shown on Discovery Travel Channel. He has also composed music for films, theatre, commercials, and for the documentary “A Journey through Estonia”, created by the NDR TV-channel, with sax player himself as the leading character.
Together with multi-instrumentalist Tiit Kikas, Veski was comissioned to compose music for the interval act of the European Song Contest international TV show on 2002.
Over the years Villu Veski has toured almost in many European countries, parts of the former Soviet Union and North America.

Tiit Kalluste has performed on all major jazz festivals in Estonia, as well as on Pori International Jazz (1999, Finland), Dahlsbruk Jazz (1996, Finland). With his Happy Days swing-jazz group Tiit Kalluste Jump Band he has performed at many accordion festivals, both in Estonia and abroad.
He has played with musicians like: pianist Mika Pohjola (USA), percussionist Abdissa Assefa (Ethiopia), saxophonist Petras Vyshniauskas (Lithuania), singers Debbie Cameron (Denmark) and Laima Vaikule (Latvia), Marie N (Latvia), mouth-organist and pianist Raimonds Macats (Latvia), percussionist Matti Oiling (Finland), pianist and composer Raimonds Pauls (Latvia) etc.
After graduating from Estonian Academy of Music, Kalluste has worked as a freelance musician. Although he is primarily noted for being a jazz accordionist, Kalluste is equally well-versed in playing French chansons and Argentinean tangos.
Currently Tiit Kalluste is working as accordion and improvisation teacher in the pop-jazz department of G. Ots Music School of Tallinn and Viljandi Culture College.
In 1999 Tiit Kalluste was elected the president of Estonian Accordion Society.

”An inventive music, connecting with Atlantic inspirations resulting in a combination of transparent harmonies and the warmth of melodic lines.Sounds of the Nordic Islands once more reflects that small communities with their unique qualities can be essential as inspiration, also for visiting artists and lead to works like this unique CD.”
Kristian Blak on “Sounds of the Nordic Islands”

“The universal and emotional message of Sounds of the Nordic Islands touches everyone deepely, makes them dream and long for things. The music of Villu Veski and Tiit Kalluste is born from the inner need of these two create just this kind of music. That is why it has the right element, that something which need not be explained in words – after all, the most important things are recognized by the heart.”
Eha Vain, In Time, 1999

“There are no pointless and artifical things in folk music tunes. This music is not tiring or burdensome, it creates the opportunity to go back in time and in history, to discover old truths and wisdom, to recreate them as values. The written culture lore of the Nordic peoples has quite a short history, and the continuity of unwritten culture is contained not only in ethnographic material - in woven belt patterns - but also in folk songs.”
Tiit Kalluste, In Time