Rahel Talts: New and Familiar
Rahel Talts

Much has happened in a short time for Rahel Talts, whose self-description as “a younger-generation rising jazz pianist and composer from Estonia [and] based in Denmark” is borne out by the facts. Six years ago, she followed studies at Georg Ots Tallinn Music College with a move to Denmark where her continuing studies in jazz piano and composition led to the 2023 completion of her Master's degree at the Danish National Academy of Music. Outside of studying, she was engaged in writing, arranging, and recording music with both her fourteen-member Rahel Talts Ensemble, whose first album Power of Thought appeared in February 2022, and her quartet, which released its debut album Greener Grass in May 2023.

Born and raised in a little seaside resort town called Pärnu, Talts grew up in a jazz musicians' family and started on classical piano at the age of six. Those studies carried on for many years until she turned her attention to jazz piano and composing. Accomplishments in that area include representing Estonia in the legendary Euroradio Jazz Orchestra in 2023 and in that same year being chosen one of the finalists in the Helsinki Big Band Composing Contest. Talts has studied and played with jazz artists such as Seamus Blake, Melissa Aldana, and Theo Croker and plays in multiple other ensembles bedsides her own, including the Donatas Petreikis Quintet and Saulius Petreikis World Orchestra.

Whilst acknowledging Pat Metheny as a key influence and jazz as the cornerstone of her music, Talts is someone receptive to many artists and genres, and it's not unusual to hear folk, pop, and dance elements surface in her compositions. The musicians she assembled for New and Familiar come from Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland and energize her material with ebullient and fully committed playing. On an album recorded in Tallinn last year, Talts augments her piano with horns, woodwinds, strings, guitar, double bass, drums, and percussion, and imbuing the music with distinctive character are the vocal stylings of the award-winning Karmen Rõivassepp. The set-list is all Talts originals except for the opening “Meie Elu,” an old Estonian folk song written by Rudolf Tobias in 1915 and with lyrics by Märt Mohn.

With Rõivassepp smoothly gliding across the ensemble's expansive foundation, the overture-like piece quickly draws the listener into Talts' world. Warm brass and woodwinds textures add to the atmospheric impression, as do percussive flourishes and the responsive support of the rhythm players. As the piece advances, an enticing piano-led theme imparts shape and definition and incites the collective to emote passionately. Testifying to Talts' openness to other genres, the aptly titled “Restless” lunges forth with a breathless jungle-jazz pulse before settling into a big band-styled statement that sees all the instrumental and vocal forces operating in tandem and Petreikis delivering a high-intensity tenor sax solo.

The dominant composition of her four is “Conversations,” a concert set-piece whose four movements extend across twenty-minutes. Introduced by string quartet and piano in neo-classical mode, the first movement thereafter shifts the focus to a swinging groove that feels as influenced by Latin America and Spain as Eastern Europe. Talts struts her stuff in a strong solo turn that shows she's as much jazz musician as composer and arranger. As energized as the first, the second movement arrests the ear with the fiery entwining of Petreikis's soprano sax and Jacob Djursaa's electric guitar. The leader initiates the third part with classical finesse before double bassist Mariusz Prasniewski and Rõivassepp amplify the movement's mournful character, and a sprawling rubato episode even recalls the Liberation Music Orchestra's Dream Keeper album from 1990. The fourth movement functions as a tender coda of sorts to usher this ambitious composition to an uplifting resolution.

A melodic trace of “Edelweiss” echoes in the background of “Bella Center,” Talts' tune otherwise appealing for its warm spirit and an arrangement that showcases the ensemble's strings, horns, and woodwinds. Don't be surprised either if you're reminded a bit of Metheny's writing when Rõivassepp soars alongside the instrumentalists. Following that extended performance is the even-longer title composition, a kaleidoscopic panorama that takes the album out on a glorious, ten-minute wave. Throughout New and Familiar, players such as Jakob Sørensen (trumpet, flugelhorn), Jesper Lørup Christensen (drums), and Kasper Grøn (percussion) elevate the material.

March 2025