Music
Press
“The album [What Is Your Dream?] is fantastic!” “It sure is.”
– Enio Mascherin & Steve Ritchie, co-hosts,
100 Mile Music Show, CFOS, Owen Sound
- CFOS Radio Owen Sound
"Jarmo's music manages to be both uplifting and honest. His personal integrity shines through his songs to reconnect listeners with essential truths." - Gillian Kirkland, musician/composer, Ottawa
Fantastic. I look forward to [your] show a lot...I'm enjoying your C.D. that I bought at that superb concert you did a while back in Owen Sound at The Downtown Bookstore. It's all great, for different reasons, and my wife, Caroline, and I especially like the one about the dogs. And not just because we like dogs... but because it's so witty and really bounces. - Robert Menzies, Organiser, SOUNDS Word & Music Series, Owen Sound, Ontario
HI Jarmo
Just wanted to pass this on to you. I will be sending something more ‘official’ next week, but wanted to say thanks for doing the Art Beat session. It was obviously very successful!
Thanks so much!
All the best
Chris
From: Christine Marshall [mailto:Christine.Marshall@ottawacatholicschools.ca]
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2010 9:33 AM
To: cmaclean@ocff.ca
Subject: Fwd: Re: ART BEAT at Our Lady of Fatima School
Hi,
I just wanted to say a big thank you to Jarmo and to this initiative to bring artists into the classroom. Jarmo was fabulous. I have a very lively class and to see them engaged while listening to him was wonderful. The messages in his songs connect well with the subjects and ideas we are trying to pass on to the children. This was an opportunity many of these students would not normally have.
Thank you again!
Christine
- Christine Marshall
“Warm, celestial sounds…mighty words…Jalava mixes lovely music with a mind, body and spiritual message...some of the best music from the local scene in quite some time."
-- Jeff Macklin, Peterborough Examiner - Peterborough Examiner
"Jarmo Jalava and Alison Wearing have often delighted us with their performances. Their joyful presence and rich, contemplative, and at times heartbreaking, music has been a boon to our community. An evening with Jarmo and Alison is a gift. I recommend their concerts most highly."
-- Erica Cohen, Co-Director, Shambhala Center, Tepoztlan, Mexico
- Shambhala
Jarmo's "...writing has really progressed to a new level and yet I love how the performance remains very fresh and ‘live’ sounding. There are some very interesting sonic elements, and the extensive use of background vocals and vocalise lends a lovely texture."
-- Anne Lindsay (of the Anne Lindsay Band, The Jim Cuddy Band, and performances with Led Zeppelin, Blue Rodeo, The Chieftains, Natalie McMaster, Oliver Shroer, etc.) - Anne Lindsay
"Wearing is all luscious texture and running narrative…with an endless supply of traveller's tales, each one tripping into the next. And like most raconteurs, she has embroidered the fabric of her reportage to 'lend artistry to a scene,' and to paint portraits that are true in spirit."
-- The Globe and Mail (review of Alison Wearing's "Honeymoon in Purdah")
- The Globe and Mail
"Jarmo Jalava and Alison Wearing have often delighted us with their performances. Their joyful presence and rich, contemplative, and at times heartbreaking, music has been a boon to our community. An evening with Jarmo and Alison is a gift. I recommend their concerts most highly."
-- Erica Cohen, Co-Director, Shambhala Center, Tepoztlan, Mexico
- Shambhala
A Jalava & Wearing concert
"...is food for the soul."
-- Margaret Gallagher, Arts Reporter, CBC Radio One, Vancouver (March 31, 2006) - CBC Radio One, Vancouver
"...a magical night of songs and story telling."
-- Lightwaves, Issue 5
visit www.yasodhara.org/ for audio clip of this show (click on Lightwaves, then Digital Prasad) - Lightwaves
Dear Alison and Jarmo,
Of all the events that took place this weekend, all of which were great, none had a greater impact or resonance for me than yours. I find myself trying to recall as much as I possibly can of your 'performance' for I found it so evocative and such an amazing sensory trip. If ever I wanted to re-think or re-experience Canada it would be through your eyes and voices! Thank you both so much for giving us such a treat...and please don't forget to bring some more of your CDs to La Sombra. I will be your first customer!
With deep appreciation,
Bridget Estavira, co-owner Cafe Literario La Sombra del Sabino (Literary Cafe), Tepoztlan, Mexico - La Sombra del Sabino
A Jalava & Wearing concert
"...is food for the soul."
-- Margaret Gallagher, Arts Reporter, CBC Radio One, Vancouver (March 31, 2006) - CBC Radio One, Vancouver
“Jarmo Jalava writes songs rich in whimsy and wonder….think of Bruce Cockburn's crisp melodicism and Daniel Lanois's low-burn intensity—but there is also a fresh voice.
"Jalava has edge and intelligence, heart and soul. His music stays with you.”
-- Charles Foran, music reviewer for The National Post.
- Charles Foran of The National Post (Canada)
Discography
Hole In the Sky (IndiePool 2001) (LP)
Rites of Passage (IndiePool 2005) (LP)
What Is Your Dream (IndiePool 2010) (LP)
Transition Town (IndiePool 2011) (Single)
Also on the soundtracks:
Manifesting Shambhalatlan (2008)
Discovering the Profound: Shamans in the Huichol Tradition (2009)
Jarmo's albums are played on the Canada's national radio network (CBC Radio 2), YLE (Finland's national radio service), as well as university, community and commercial radio stations in Canada.
Photos
Bio
"Jarmo Jalava writes songs rich in whimsy and wonder. Think of Bruce Cockburn's crisp melodicism and Daniel Lanois's low-burn intensity, but there is also a fresh voice. Jalava has edge, intelligence, heart and soul. His music stays with you.” -- Charles Foran, world music reviewer for The National Post.
“The album [What Is Your Dream?] is fantastic.” “It really is.” -- Enio Mascherin & Steve Ritchie, co-hosts, The Hundred Mile Music Show, CFOS Owen Sound
You might find Jarmo performing his uplifting, gritty, subtle, poetic, diverse and unique brand of world-folk solo in a little cafe somewhere. Or, he could be on a grand stage with any combination of his North American Fair Trade Ensemble members: Mexico's Charly Peña on flutes, sax, traditional Mexican instruments and guitar, Grammy-winning bassist Marco Renteria also from Mexico, Juno-winning drummer Mark Mariash on drums, Seattle-born Jimi Doney on percussion, multi-award winning perfomer and author Alison Wearing on vocals, percussion, banjo and funny-bone, and Javier Carasusan of Basque Spain on accordion, trumpet and Mongolian harmonic chant.
After the release of his debut album, "Hole in the Sky", in 2001, Jarmo was invited to perform in the Festival of Lights in Peterborough, Ontario, and Tapsan Tahdit music festival in Nokia, Finland, and the album received airplay on both sides of the Atlantic. His second album, "Rites of Passage" (2005), and his third, "What Is Your Dream?" (2010), have both been heard across Canada on CBC Radio 1 and 2, and on university, community and commercial radio. Jarmo has performed on the main stage at Toronto City Hall's Nathan Phillips Square, been a featured artist with the Tlapan Cultural Center concert series in Mexico City, as well as the Parque Nacional Desierto de Los Leones music series in Mexico. Tours have taken him to Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, the states of Washington and New York, and Mexico.
When he's not making music, you might find Jarmo Jalava hiking in the wilderness looking for birds, or at a desk writing an endangered species recovery plan, or in a boardroom leading a workshop on how to conserve ecosystems, or in a Mexican night club dancing to Afro-Cuban salsa, or in a kitchen being really silly with his son, or sitting in lotus position on a breezy verandah...in peaceful gratitude.
Charly Peña, originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, is a virtuoso player of transverse flute and various traditional bamboo flutes, as well as soprano saxophone. Charly regularly performs with Latin, pre-Hispanic Mexican, Cuban, Brazilian, trova latina, New Age and World music groups—and has played in festivals throughout Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Canada, England, Scotland, France and Portugal. He has been a mainstay of one of Mexico’s finest Afro-Cuban ensembles, Son de Tepoztlan, since 1997.
Alison Wearing is the multiple award-winning, best-selling author of "Honeymoon In Purdah - an Iranian Journey", as well as a playwright, actor, singer and dancer. She is currently touring two one-woman musical, spoken-word and dance performances, "Giving Into Light" and "Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter", at theatres and festivals across Canada and the United States.
Bassist Marco Renteria of Mexico City performs and records with many of Mexico's foremost artists, including the Latin Grammy-winning mega rock band, Jaguares, alt-rock icon Saul Hernandez, and Mexican world music/jazz diva Lila Downs.
Jimi (James) Doney of Seattle has been a full-time jazz/world music percussionist for over thirty years. He holds an M.F.A. from the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Jimi is based in central Mexico, where he can be found performing jazz, blues, Hindustani and African percussion, and producing and recording a variety of Latin American artists. He has toured in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Islands, Panama, Seattle and Alaska. One of Jimi’s recent projects is Tibwa, a sizzling, infectiously-danceable Afro-Cuban drumming quartet. Jimi’s passion with the Pythagorean harp has recently had him performing and giving workshops throughout Brazil.
“Warm, celestial sounds…mighty words…Jalava mixes lovely music with a mind, body and spiritual message,” -- The Peterborough Examiner.
“And now, over to Jarmo Jalava, who’s worried that he may not get so many kisses once he loses his teeth.”
-- Sook-Yin Lee, Definitely Not The Opera, CBC Radio One
Links
