Irwin Goodman was a Finnish singer-songwriter who became famous due his arrogant protest songs. Most of the over 300 songs he recorded were his own compositions and the style of the songs varied from folk to rock. However, in this single from 1977 Irwin showed also his latin influenced side. "Cha cha cha" is a groovy latin song with a percussion driven break in the middle and catchy vocals. "Tää elämä on lyhyt" on side b is a typical late 1970s Irwin track.
4+20 is the first album of Finnish well know actor, comedian and musician Vesa-Matti Loiri. Best known for his lead role in countless Uuno Turhapuro movies, he is also a professional flautist. The album is mostly flute-driven jazzfunk and free jazz, but there's also elements from folk songs on some songs. Vesa-Matti Loiri's musical career headed more and more into singing after this album. Due to a quite small pressing and poor distribution, this album is really hard to find nowadays. The best songs on this album are 3 different takes of the title track 4+20, uptempo groover Turkish coffee, latin influenced Carnavalito & El condor pasa, heavy vocal track Itkevä huilu (weeping flute in English) and of course the uptempo jazzfunk monster coming home baby. There's pretty impressive list of famous Finnish musicians on this album too. Pekka Sarmanto on bass and drums, Esko Rosnell on drums, Hasse Walli on guitar, eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman on saxophones, Tuomo Tanska on Organ and of course Vesa-Matti Loiri himself on flute, recorder and percussion among other musicians. Highly recommended album. If there's any chance, pick it up with no hesitation. Album was reissued in 2011.
IRWIN GOODMAN
