Jazz Finland Live

Conductor: Vellu Halkosalmi

Quincy Jones is a giant in the music industry who just turned 80. UMO’s celebration of his work features his classic compositions and arrangements dating from between 1956 and 1962. This is a rare treat indeed, as this music has not been heard in Finland since 1960 when Quincy Jones performed with his orchestra at the House of Culture in Helsinki. The initiator and conductor of the concert, Vellu Halkosalmi, was assisted in the programming by Quincy Jones himself, who kindly provided original arrangements from his personal archive for UMO to perform.

The concert will include numbers from albums such as This Is How I Feel About Jazz (1956), The Birth of a Band! (1959), I Dig Dancers (1960) and The Quintessence (1961), plus highlights of Quincy Jones’s time in Stockholm writing for the Harry Arnold Big Band. Conductor Vellu Halkosalmi will provide background with anecdotes about Quincy Jones’s career, the selections played and the famous musicians who originally performed them.

The members of this improvising trio hail from Central Finland and West Coast, but the oil that burns in this machine is drilled from the rich and organic musical ground of Pispala esker, Tampere. That's probably the reason why Black Motor sounds like a brotherhood of jazz and rock. The band narrows its influences down to "the continuum of Afro-American music, the many shades of blues ambiance, from swing to free jazz and punk rock".

Tenor saxophonist Sami Sippola, bassist Ville Rauhala and drummer Simo Laihonen have already come a long and productive way since 2005, but after nine releases and hundreds of gigs they seem to always have a bigger gear in their box to turn on. The newest album, Yöstä aamun kynnykselle (Lumpeela Records, 2013) will be released as a double vinyl in fall 2013, and they are also going to studio to record their second TUM Records album with trumpeter Verneri Pohjola.

Year 2014 also begins with two big booms: A tour in New York in January, and participating in an extensive FinnishNorwegian collaboration project, which is touring Finland in January, February and March. The project features such acclaimed musicians as drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, saxman Esa Pietilä and vocal artist Stine Janvin Motland.

The Finnish Jazz Federation (FJF) organizes five domestic tours in fall 2013. The tours are supported by the Ministry of Education
and The Finnish Music Foundation MES.

Black Motor is
Sami Sippola - tenor saxophone
Ville Rauhala - double bass
Simo Laihonen – drums
www.blackmotor.fi 

Open event