Skip to content

Antti Hytti

basist/ composer
antti-hytti

Kuva/ Photo: Maarit Kytöharju

Antti Hytti (b. 1950) played immediately in the beginning of his career in a prestigious company, as he played the bass in the quartet of drummer Edward Vesala and Polish trumpetist Tomasz Stanko in the mid-1970s. Hytti played also in Piirpauke, a group of Sakari Kukko, and in the beginning of 1980s he formed his own group, Antti Hytti Quartet. In the 1980s Hytti also started the co-operation with saxophonist Jone Takamäki, first documents of this fruitful collaboration being the debut album of Takamäki, Universal Mind (Johanna 1982).

In the mid-1980s Hytti started composing film and theatre music as his main job and he performed rarely live during the next 10 years. Hytti returned to the jazz field in Otná Eahket that he founded with Jone Takamäki in 1997, including drummer Tom Nekljudow. The ethnic free jazz of the trio could be heard on e.g. the Jorma Tapio's Tse tse Club and on the Free Voices -tour in summer 1998.

Otná Eahket and the film compositions of Hytti became the most important elements of Suhkan Uhka, a group Hytti founded in the beginning of 21st century. In this 12-member superline-up of Finnish jazz play i.a. saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen, trumpetist Verneri Pohjola and pianists Jarmo Savolainen and Seppo Kantonen. Besides Hytti, Ulf Krokfors plays the bass and sometimes Jukka Gustavson has featured the gigs of Suhkan Uhka as a vocalist. Suhkan Uhka's album Suhka was TUM Record's first release, released in 2003. Most of the songs on the album are loaned from Hytti's film and theatre music repertoire, and then arranged for a big ensemble, with leaving lots of space for improvisation. The album is recorded at the Magnusborg's Studio in Porvoo that is Hytti's work place and music laboratory. Antti Hytti is also an important actor in the annual Musica Futura Festival in Porvoo with Ulf Krokfors.