PROGNOSIS

Good news for all friends of prog/fusion music of Jukka Gustavson, the organist/keyboard player, vocalist and composer who, prior to his long and many-sided solo career, was for the most part responsible of WIGWAM's classic albums Fairyport (1971) and Being (1974). The sound of this new release may bring even those albums in mind here and there. By the way, in recent years he has been active playing live the music of Wigwam in various line-ups -- although the material on those gigs have emphasized on the Pembroke-Rechardt "deep pop" era of Wigwam (his modesty has gone perhaps too far, thinks the more prog-oriented part of the audience). To some degree, Prognosis is a return to Gustavson's progressive style after a couple of more roots/blues-oriented collaborative albums. This is not to say that his familiar bluesy touch wouldn't be present here too.

All music is written by Gustavson, all lyrics are in English (several of his albums have both English and Finnish lyrics), and the music is performed by a tight quartet: "Gutsi" plays Hammond A 100 organ, Kurzweil Forte keyboard and Wurlitzer electric piano, Jari Nieminen plays guitars, Janne Rajala is on bass and Thomas Törnroos on drums. The musicianship between these men is very organic, and the arrangements are elegant and pretty varied. There are nine tracks on this nearly 60-minute album.

The opening song 'We Must Change' hits the listener right away with the urgent message about the climate change, backed by groovy music with a blues flavour. 'All Flowers of the Spring' focuses on Gustavson's synths; I find this piece a bit uninteresting as it doesn't have that much variety within 6 minutes. The other instrumental follows the first one directly, but the lengthy 'Some Astronomers Have Seen Far' is among my favourites. It is spacey and rather meditative, full of sonic depth. The fascinating electric guitar reminds me of TERJE RYPDAL, e.g. his Odyssey album.

Steady-beat and slightly jam-natured 'The Great Crowd' grooves instrumentally for nearly half of its 8+ min. before the vocals enter. This pleasant, relaxed piece would function well as driving music. On 'J & L' Jukka sings of love between him and his wife Leena. Rhythmically the music is slightly monotonous, but little solos for organ and other instruments make it a nice piece. Also 'Turquoise Yarn Inspiration' proceeds as an instrumental before the home-praising lyrics enter at the end. I like this one a lot, there's the open-minded sonic excitement comparable to e.g. Kadonnut häviämättömiin (1995) which I'd probably name as my dearest JG album.

The three last songs all have a mood of their own. 'Be Wise Realize' is an enjoyable, laid-back, jazzy song with a slight STEELY DAN reminiscence. 'You Can't Be a Racist' is the funkiest one, with angry lyrics clearly attacking against Donald Trump (for a good reason, of course!). But even at his most political, Gutsi doesn't forget to make good, groovy music. On the last track he deals with the poor people and the will to make the world a better place for everyone. This mostly mellow piece is a highlight for me, and the fast organ melodies are nearing the classic Wigwam era I mentioned above.

There are some slightly less inspiring tracks to prevent me from giving the full rating (and some may find the lyrics a bit too preachy), but Prognosis is definitely among the finest albums of Jukka Gustavson (b. 1951). The overall feeling is warm and positive. No slightest signs of this living legend losing his unique touch and musical inspiration.