Jazz Finland Live

Savoy Theatre autumn season opening will be celebrated in the beginning of September with two album release concerts of The Prescription, the new superb collaboration of Lenny Pickett and UMO Jazz Orchestra.

Lenny Pickett is the renowned tenor saxophonist and E-flat clarinetist who was a seminal horn-section member of the pop/funk band Tower of Power from 1972-1981, and has been a member of the Saturday Night Live band since 1985 and its musical director since 1995. Pickett is also known as a longtime session musician and arranger who has worked with a wide range of artists from David Bowie and Elton John to David Byrne and Katy Perry. Pickett’s singular instrumental voice is unmistakable.

The concert covers The Prescription, a 10-song collection of Pickett rowdy-to-waltzing originals, for example a robust rendition of the TOP hit What Is Hip, and the arranger and former artistic director of UMO Jazz Orchestra Rich Shemaria’s whimsical tune A Sad State of Affairs.

“This is a unique project that has artsy elements as well slow blues, uptempo swing, funk and eclectic music in the mix – it’s hard to categorize what this album is,” Pickett says.

Conductor Rich Shemaria. 

Tickets available at Lippupalvelu from 36,50 € / 32,50 € (normal 34 €, pensioners, unemployed, students and children 32,50 € + service fee from 2,50 €). Show & Dinner -ticket at Restaurant Presto 77,50 € / 73,50€ (normal 74 €, pensioners, unemployed, students and children 70 € + service fee from. 3,50 €).

tuOKio is a concert series with a message. The concert series is produced by the OK Study Centre that invites a different group each year to write music around a certain social theme and go on a tour. This year’s theme is “make a change!” and the persuasive group to spread the word is a quartet consisting of the punk-jazz trio Mopo and singer-songwriter Ville Leinonen.

Leinonen and the members of Mopo were not acquainted before, but after the suggestion was made by the Study Centre they were very eager to get involved and to collaborate with each other. That punk is far from being dead is hardly a surprise, but the fact that its attitude has found a new proponent from the field of jazz may be. Mopo is a trio formed by three gifted young musicians, and the group lists jazz, the 70s punk rock and the Finnish nature as their sources of inspiration. Each member has their say in the process of making music, which makes the trio a fine example of a tiny democracy. Surprise is an essential element of Mopo’s philosophy. Ville Leinonen is a versatile artist who has shed his skin many times during his career. He started out in his youth in the group Valumo and has moved from the popular song of the 70s to Slavic folk songs and stage musical, from avant-garde to psychedelic rock and the project Camp Crystal Lake in which the soundscapes of the Holocaust met those of horror films. Who would be better to take a stand for a perpetually current theme in a democratic state – that of civic engagement and grass-root action?

Free entry!

Open event