Reija Lang

Vocalist, lyricist Reija Lang is a true modernist by her inner spirit preferring improvised music. Her alto voice is very expressive, moving from childlike innocence and beauty to surreal drama – and she prefers using the whole scale of human voice when telling the story. In addition to her voice qualities her intuitive feel for rhythm makes her a true improviser. At least these two factors formed the criteria when she was announced as a winner of the Finnish Vocal Jazz Contest “Lady Summertime” in 2002.Reija Lang has collaborated with the well known Finnish classical/jazz violinist Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola for almost four years. He has played first violin at the Metropolitan Opera and he was selected as Artist of the Year 2004 at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. He has also been selected several years as the best jazz violinist in Finland.Reija and Mikko-Ville create and perform their music together with their own quintet called Lang & Luolajan-Mikkola - with a brilliant rhythm section: Alexi Tuomarila on piano, Marko Lohikari on bass and Tuomas Timonen on drums. Reija writes poems and she also writes lyrics to instrumentals – on their debut album “Transit” (released 2005 on Rockadillo Record label) she has created stories for Wayne Shorter, Eric Dolphy and Mal Waldron instrumentals. Mikko-Ville has composed songs based on her original lyrics as well.In addition to Lang & Luolajan-Mikkola quintet, Reija has performed as a soloist with the Opera Big Band of the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki both 2004, 2005 and 2006. In autumn 2004 she created a spectacular big band performance “Clockwork Rendez-Vous” together with trumpet player and composer Mika Myllari. This concert got praising feedback due to its fresh and artistic charactere and unconventional energy.The Finnish Jazz Federation elected Lang & Luolajan-Mikkola quintet to perform on an annually organised Finnish Jazz Tour in major Finnish cities in November 2005. The Tour concert in Kuopio received praising critique by Pauli Vesakas of Savon Sanomat “Reija Lang..s expressive esthetics proved to be actually the same as of the opera—an entire art experience.”In spring 2006 she started a free improvisation performance project called ZOGA. The trio is a collaboration of three alter egos - Reija equals voice witch Karla Namak in this context while Otzir Godot is mr. percussion and Zigrot Baude is mr. violin. ZOGA has collaborated also with modern dancers in free improvisation sessions together with trombonist Jari Hongisto.REIJA LANG TRIO is he mainstream project dedicated to great originals from the great composers. The delicate sound comes from just voice, guitar and bass - introducing Petri Krzywacki on guitar and Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola on bass. The 2008 main project is "Meeting Bill Evans". In 2007 she toured also with the successful big band program - "BOOGIE BLUES - A Tribute to Anita O..Day" featuring several big bands. This project is a collaboration with arranger, composer, trumpet player Mika Myllari.In 2008 Reija Lang and Mika Myllari started up a new Finnish-British project called BURN OUT MAMA. They invited some cool musicians from London to form a creative team - to compose new music and to create anew and unique sound scene. The team members represent solid musicianship, high energy and creative impact : introducing Ed Jones on sax, Geoff Gascoyne on bass and Orphy Robinson on marimba and vibraphone. BURN OUT MAMA will release their debut album "Out Of Office" in March 2009. All material is band..s own creation - based on Lang..s lyrics.In late autumn 2009 Reija Lang will go to the studio with her long-term colleagues, fine sounding guitarist Petri Krzywacki and violin virtuoso/double bass player Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola. Reija Lang Trio new album will be released in the beginning of 2010.