Riitta Paakki Trio, consisting of Paakki, bassist Antti Lötjönen and drummer Jaska Lukkarinen, plays a mixture of modern and traditional acoustic piano trio jazz.

The trio released their latest album Characters in April 2015 on drummer Lukkarinen’s Jaskaa label. The album consists of legendary 1960's composer Wayne Shorter’s music, which Paakki has rearranged. Paakkis arrangements reflect their own style, where the dark, Finnish undertones interlace with Shorters strong melodies, groovy rhythms and delicate ambiance. The album title Characters points out the differences between the trio’s personalities and musical nuances, which meet and mix on the album.

Originally founded in 1996, with Ari-Pekka Anttila on bass and Mikko Hassinen on drums, the trio published three albums under the label Impala: RPT (2000), Enne (2004) and Onion (2006)

Riitta Paakki – piano
Antti Lötjönen – bass
Jaska Lukkarinen – drums