KALLE KALIMA

Critics over the new Big Band Piece: "Dance Suite for Domestic Animals" played by UMO Big Band in Helsinki 25.9.2009:
"Kalima is at the moment the most interesting Finnish composer and guitarist...Free, funny with a lot of facettes..."
(Jukka Hauru, Helsingin Sanomat, 27.9.09 (transl. KK))

"Kalima reveals that he has absorbed a wealth of influences over his 35 years, citing particularly Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Mingus and Ligeti, not to mention his former local mentors and composers, bassist Teppo Hauta-Aho and guitarist Raoul Björkenheim. With a palette encompassing such variety it is truly inspiring to listen to a musician who has expanded his own resources into a composer's ample toolkit, and yet still retains his individual touch and style. Keep it up Kalle!"
(Anthony Shaw, All About Jazz, 14.10.2009)

Kalle Kalima: Ein Finne in Berlin
Kalle Kalima ist mehr als nur ein Gitarrist. Wenn er mit seinen Bands wie Klima Kalima oder Johnny La Marama spielt, scheint man zwielichtige Gestalten zum Leben erweckt zu sehen und Filmmusik ohne Bilder zu erleben. Die Energie und Bühnenpräsenz des 35jährigen Finnen und seiner Bands ist immens, er zieht seine Zuhörer in einen wahren Strudel von Sounds, Energie, eruptiven Ausbrüchen und leisen Miniaturen.
(Autor: ballhorn, GITARRE & BASS 5/2009 Seite 64)

...Kalle Kalima is smart, humorful and extremely versatile musician…
(Ralf Dombrowski, Süddeutsche Zeitung 02.02.08)

“Big applause for a band that is on the way to the top.”
(Steve Kuberczyk-Stein, Hessische Nachrichten 18.01.08)

Presenting a combination of reckless abandon and structural thinking, Kalle Kalima is one of the most fascinating Finnish musicians at the moment. ...the guitarist has managed to formulate a unique sound both as a musician and as a tunesmith.
(HELSINKI HAPPENS, Petri Silas, Finnland, 01/01)

...with his guitars Kalle Kalima proves to be a far reaching story-telling talent.
(JAZZPODIUM Nr. 2, Frithjof Strauß, 02/01)

JOHNNY LA MARAMA

“They shook loose from cliches and played beyond current categories with vital energy... The trio changes as fast as lighting and with astonishing soverenity from one idiom to another melding reggae, blues, noise and folk elements. Although they excursion into un-researched sounds, they always come back to the point without cheating.”
(LEIPZIGER VOLKSZEITUNG, Bert Noglik, 26/4/04)

“Kalima is Virtuoso who pulls off everything from single notes up to electronically altered hyper-slide guitar. Schaefer is an astounding, scrupulous timekeeper, which he has to be in the rhythmic and melodic chaos that his band mates happily create. Dahlgren´s bass rumbles in sophistication and swings exaltedly. What you want to call this music doesn’t make a difference.”
(JAZZPODIUM, Thomas Wörtche, 4/03)

“The trans-Atlantic allience of Kalima and Schaefer from Berlin with the New York basist Dahlgren works freely in sound imagination, without free jazz associations. The linear structure and eruptive craft of the songs remind one of hip hop, funk or grunge.”
(TIP, Wolf Kampmann, 17/03)

„Expressive experimental Jazz... This trio combines elements from jazz, ska, sphere-music and African rhythms together and develops its own style.
(Jan Lautenbach, www.jazzdimensions.de)

SOI

Groovy and fine poem-songs
Guitarist Kalle Kalima conquers a new field
An interesting series of concerts at Kanneltalo for this spring begun in regard to jazz in an excellent way. The novelty of the whole concert was in fact Kalle Kalima´s melodically rich and original SOI Ensemble. The band´s new songs were a multifaceted conquer, even an artistic victory, for composer Kalima.
Kalima has studied at the Sibelius Academy as well as in Berlin, where he nowadays lives and works. Formerly he was known as a guitarist leaning to modern and even to free jazz. Despite good single achievements, he has perhaps still been looking for his own, most distinguishing style.
With his poem-songs for SOI Ensemble Kalima surprised with his breezy ingeniousness as a melodician and orchestrator. This time it was not about free or jazz-jazz, but about clearly tonal, at times ethnically inspired songs. Kalima managed even to convert always apparent “ludicrousness” of modern poem-singing to his advantage. That is to say, even the more complex melodies breathed naturally along the lyrics written by Essi Lahtinen as was the case for example in the first-love-ballad “Talvi Suomenlinnassa” beautifully sung by Johanna Iivanainen.
A superb accomplishment in terms of groove was the stylistically Spanish song, ”Terveisiä pilvilinnaan”, in which Kalima performed in a way a breakthrough as a skilled acoustic guitarist, too. However, the top of the night was the juicy soul-bossanova ”Aikaa on”, which revealed a clear hit potential for bigger audiences in its bright groove and fine tonal-melodic hooks.
The original instrumentation of the Ensemble sounded surprisingly well, partly because the sound of the vocalists carried boldly through the songs. There are surely ingredients to a more permanent girl trio. As a solist besides Iivanainen, we heard Eeppi Ursin, the winner of the “Lady Summertime” competition last summer.
(HELSINGIN SANOMAT, Jukka Hauru, 1/2/02)

PENTASONIC

Kalimas Klangwelt ist sperrig, aber nicht unzugänglich, ein Experimentierfeld, das die Möglichkeiten der E-Gitarre Schritt für Schritt auslotet. Das Solo-Projekt Pentasonic ist dabei eine Art Kernlabor, in dem er in Echtzeit ohne Overdubs mit Räumen, Motiven, Rhythmen, Geräuschen arbeitet, melodisch im Ansatz, orientiert am Flow der Inspiration, uneitel in der Durchführung. Faszinierender Blick in Kalimas Denk- & Performance-Werkstatt.
(Ralf Dombrowski 24.02.09)

...weil er da Zwiegesprächen frönt zwischen Mensch/Gitarrist und Maschine/Elektronik, in denen der Gitarrist KK öfter mal zweitrangig wird, obwohl er auch da insgesamt beeindruckt durch seine Ökonomie, seinen stupenden Sinn für die genau richtige Dosierung an Maschinenkunst, seine Gestaltungskraft, seinen sicheren Sinn für subtile Dramaturgie und alles in allem das deutlich Künstlerische in seinen Klangcollagen und Verfremdungen. Nichts schreit oder schrillt oder blubbert. Seine Beherrschung der Elektronik ist bewundernswert, und das, was er da auf der Gitarre macht, hat eben Sinn und Verstand.
Kalle Kalima blufft nicht. Er ist ein ernst zu nehmender Mann. Mit ihm ist es eher, als entrümple da endlich mal einer den verlotterten Dachboden der ziemlich wild wuchernden Improviserenden Klasse und puste frischen Wind in alle Ecken.
Kalle Kalima ist einfach nur eine ganz große Freude.
(Agas, 2009)