Carla Bley

The pandemic year brought a record harvest of jazz by women. While Finland prides itself on equality, there’s still a long way to go on the jazz scene, though.

In a sun-drenched town only 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, jazz connoisseurs mixed with locals to enjoy their 31st festival of music, at the Jazz on the Beach in Raahe, Finland.

"Nevertheless, the shining star of Around Again is undisputedly Iro Haarla. It is her inimitable, spectral touch that carries the music at least as far as it originally travelled in the hands of Carla Bley."