Pianist Joona Toivanen (b. 1981) trained at the jazz department of the Finnish Conservatory of Jyväskylä in the late-1990s, but he says that, in fact, he learned many indispensable lessons when playing live at the local bar and venue, Jazz Bar (today called Poppari). In 1997 he formed his own trio, Joona Toivanen Trio, with bassist, Tapani Toivanen, and drummer, Olavi Louhivuori. The group played for several years as the house band of the Jazz Bar and thanks to active performing the trio’s skills developed quickly to a high level.

In 2000 Joona Toivanen Trio started to experience more visibility outside their hometown when the debut album, Numurkah, was received with enthusiasm by critics and the trio shared the first prize with the Danish band, Fuchsia, in the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition in Reykjavik. In addition to success in Scandinavia, the group has toured extensively in Continental Europe, Asia and Australia. Besides his own trio, Toivanen has worked with many top jazz musicians in Finland. After graduating from the Finnish Conservatory of Jyväskylä Toivanen has studied both at the Academy of Music and Drama of the University of Gothenburg and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Such terms as “lyricism” and “delicacy” describe Toivanen's pianism well; his technique serves the content, the story, in the music all the time. In Joona Toivanen Trio’s compositions, modern piano jazz meets Finnish folk music influences and a subtle melancholia, often regarded as a defining characteristic in Nordic jazz, can be detected as an overarching atmosphere. All that is irrelevant has been carefully left out, and the dynamics of the music emerges in the interplay between silence and economical dialogue between the musicians.

Joona Toivanen has released four albums with his trio, and the solo album, Polarities, came out on Footprint Records in 2013. He has also been a member of the Nordic quartet Jazz & Fly Fishing, whose music has been released in both DVD and recording formats.

ed. Annamari Innanen 9.2.2014