Jazz Finland Live

Conductor Kari Heinilä leads UMO Jazz Orchestra into the world of big band giants in April. The concert focuses on the music of Duke Ellington (1899–1974) and Gil Evans (1912-1988) and will feature essential pieces from two of the probably most important jazz composers of all time.

Ellington and Evans walked strictly their own paths, conductor Kari Heinilä explains. ”If you compare them to other composers of that time, their music stands out as unique. Neither of them wrote music that sounds like anyone else’s. In the time when big band music was in vogue, arrangements were often made with such a pace, that they all tended to sound alike. Ellington and Evans however wrote music, that was full of surprises and unusual instrumentations.”

The Duke Ellington part of the concert will feature a significant piece A Tone Parallel To Harlem (Harlem Suite) from the beginning of 1950’s – a fifteen minute long musical poem that consists of many parts and represents Ellington’s endeavor to compose concert pieces rather than something for people to dance to. The Mooche, which is a unique interpretation of blues with its unusual instrumentation, represents the rootier side of Ellington.

The Gil Evans part of the concert consists of his arrangements instead of compositions. In case of Evans, the line between a composition and an arrangement is however very thin. For example an arrangement of Orgone from George Gershwin’s musical Porgy & Bess, which will be performed in the concert, transformed almost to a whole new composition in the hands of Evans. The concert will also feature Evans’s interpretations of the music of Charles Mingus.