Little Birštonas Jazz Festival at Jazz Cellar 11 club. Estonian and Finnish jazz stars, who are also playing at this year's Birštonas Jazz Festival, will also visit the club's stage.
Estonian guitarist Jaak Sooäär, Armenian/Estonian bassist Ara Yaralyan and Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari founded this trio in spring 2016. Since then they have performed in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The trio's music focuses mainly on melody. The trio also performs Armenian music and some improvisations on themes by J.S. Bach. It could be called a piano trio without piano, as the guitar takes the role of a large orchestral piano.
The trio's first album, A Shooting Star, was released by the German label O-Tone Music in October 2018, and the second album, Goodbye July, was released by the same label in October 2020. Last year, the trio won the Estonian Jazz Group of the Year 2022 award. The trio's third album, Zula, was released last spring on AVA Muusika. The album's title song is inspired by the main character from the Polish film Cold War.
Jaak Sooäär is one of the most active jazz musicians in the Baltics, having played with Ray Anderson, Anders Jormin, Han Bennink, Will Calhoun, Dave Liebman, Marilyn Mazur and Vladimir Tarasov, among others. Ara Yaralyan is known for his work with the Kari Ikonen Trio, and he has also collaborated with Ingrid Jensen, Vardan Ovsepian and Verneri Pohjola among others. The trio's best known member is Markku Ounaskari, who regularly collaborates with Arve Henriksen, Anders Jormin, Nils Petter Molvaer, Trygve Seim, Markus Stockhausen, Tore Brunborg, Mats Eilertsen and Lena Willemark, and has appeared on several ECM albums.
