Jazz Finland Live
Tampere Jazz Happening: The Comet Is Coming,Klubi, tampere3.11. At 01:00
THE COMET IS COMING (UK)
King Shabaka - tenor saxophone
Danalogiue the Conqueror - synths
Betamax Killer - drums
”It would be against Sun Ra’s principles to try to be avantgarde in the same way as he,” says saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings (King Shabaka) (Sons of Kemet, The Ancestors, Melt Yourself Down), who in England won both the Jazz FM and the Jazz Act of 2017 awards. That’s why The Comet Is Coming doesn’t cling to the sound of space jazz godfather, but embraces electro, afrobeat, funk and psychedelia through it. While asteroids do fly, the pulse of today makes your body move.
Having watched many a Soccer96 gig, Hutchings finally joined the rhythmical duo on stage with his horn. “The shockwave of energy that came from it stunned us all,” drummer Max Hallett (Betamax Killer) notes. Electronicist Dan Leavers (Danalogue The Conqueror) completes the hottest trio of today’s London jazz scene. Hors d'ouvres from the much-praised album Channel The Spirits.
Tickets 20/15 €
Gigs on the same day in tampere
Tampere Jazz Happening: YRJÖ-palkinto, Shabaka & The Ancestors, Steve Coleman & The Five Elements, Tony Allen: Tribute to Art BlakeyPakkahuone, tampere3.11. At 19:00
YRJÖ AWARD 2017
The most prestigious prize given to jazz musicians in Finland, the Yrjö Award will be presented by the Finnish Jazz Federation for the fourth time during the Tampere Jazz Happening. The event will culminate in a performance by the winner of the award.
SHABAKA & THE ANCESTORS (UK/ZA)
Shabaka Hutchings - tenor sax
Mthunzi Mvubu - alto sax
Siyabonga Mthembu - vocals
Ariel Zamonsky - bass
Tumi Mogorosi - drums
Gontse Makhene - percussions
The London tenorist Shabaka Hutchings grew up on Barbados and, as with all afro-caribbeans, his roots go back to Africa. As he wishes to mirror them in some way in all his doings, a band with South African jazz musicians is a very natural idea.
The Ancestors are not so much afrojazz as about giving American deep jazz a tribal blood transfer with nguni and calypso rhythms, blues and spirituals and taking it back home. Hutchings invited Cape Town’s best jazz players to London, where the regularly four or five stars winning Wisdom of Elders album was recorded in a single day. This is another incarnation of that “great black music from ancient to future” that The Art Ensemble of Chicago believed in.
STEVE COLEMAN & FIVE ELEMENTS (US)
Steve Coleman - alto saxophone
Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet
Anthony Tidd - electric bass
Sean Rickman - drums
Growing up on Chicago’s blues-famous South Side, the now 60 year old alto player/composer absorbed the soundtrack of his environment that on top of blues featured soul, funk and jazz heavily. Coleman changed his first instrument violin for an alto sax and soon was honing his chops with The Mel Lewis-Thad Jones Big Band, Cecil Taylor and Sam Rivers, not to mention his number one mentor tenorist Von Freeman.
Steve is one of the founders of the M-Base organisation that wishes to filter a fresh jazz style using all parts of the great black tradition. He has updated that idea since the 80’s with The Five Elements. The often used moniker post-bop doesn’t completely cover all the ingredients simmering under the intense Charlie Parker -like surface. Coleman has delved deep into the Cuban and African traditions and classical music, among other things. The new Morphogenesis is the 30th album by The Five Elements.
TONY ALLEN "TRIBUTE TO ART BLAKEY" (NG/FR)
Tony Allen - drums
Matthias Allamane - double bass
Jean-Philippe Dary - piano
Irving Acao - saxophone
Remi Sciuto - saxophone
The seeds of all black music came to America on slaveships from Africa, but it didn’t stop there. In the new country the Africans absorbed influences from everything they heard and created blues, jazz and other forms of popular music. On phonograph records those new styles drifted back to Africa, where they again where absorbed and put to use.
In a way it’s ironic that the absolute master and, with Fela Kuti, its main inventor Tony Allen started by playing solid jazz. When we get older, we often feel the need to get back to our roots. That happened also to the drum wizard, who has collaborated with Damon Albarn, Jimi Tenor and many other Western musicians and who at 70 is in great shape. Now he brings to the Happening his latest project, a tribute to the American drummer Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. The eponymous project is also his latest album. For the first time we get a chance to hear, what kind of a slant Tony puts on American jazz.
Tickets 50/40 €
Tampere Jazz Happening: Sid Hille & Foreign Friends, Njet Njet 9, Jukka Eskola Soul TrioTelakka, tampere3.11. At 21:00
SID HILLE & FOREIGN FRIENDS (DE/SE/IS/SN)
Sid Hille - keyboards, electronica
Anni Elif Egecioglu - vocals
Ismaila Sané - percussions
Sigurdur Rögnvaldsson - guitar
The idea for Foreign Friends was born, when a noted Finnish saxophonist/composer Jukka Perko heard Sid Hille’s album How Shall I Receive You (2015), where the finlandized German pianist/composer improvises on the basis of old Finnish hymns. Perko suggested that it would be really interesting to hear, how a band made of immigrant Finns would interpret essential Finnish songs. Hille was into it right away. Then they started to ponder, who could be in such a band.
For vocals they chose the acrobatic Turkish-Swedish singer Anni Elif Egecioglu from Elifantree, for guitar Icelandic Sigurdur Rögnvaldsson from Equally Stupid and for percussion Ethiopia-born Mamba Assefa, who plays in so many bands that he can’t make the Happening gig. So he will be covered by Senegalese master drummer Ismaila Sané (Piirpauke, Galaxy, Buddha Surfers, Saïsba), who long time ago settled to Tampere. Keyboards and theremin are handled by the leader, whose forte is both classically inclined chamber jazz and big band jazz plus movie soundtracks.
The material covers a large time zone. There are old folk songs and hymns known to every Finn, but also much newer and even very recent pop/rock hits like J. Karjalainen’s Sankarit, Eurovision song contest winner Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi and Maailman toisella puolen by Finland’s current number one pop band Haloo Helsinki. One thing is sure: you haven’t heard this before.
NJET NJET 9 (FI)
Ville Kyttälä - keys
Martti Vesala - trumpet
Mikko Haanpää - trombone
Max Zenger - saxophone
Ville Vannemaa - saxophone
Pekka Seppänen - saxophone
Veikki Virkajärvi - guitar
Heikki Laine - bass
Eeti Nieminen - drums
This lively nonet calls itself a retro futuristic mini big band. The rather fitting moniker means that they reach for the future, while simultaneously and without any inhibitions digging into the treasures of past musical styles. There is a sense of soundtracks and tv themes, funk, soul, fusion, big band jazz, rock, wild synthesizer figures, you name it. A heady mix! Never mind the name, this posse is a very expansive and open-minded orchestra. The shear joy of playing comes through.
Of course, these days it’s a clear bonus to hear a band with five horns: a trumpet, a trombone and three saxophones/flutes, one of them occasionally turning into a clarinet, to boot. When you also got a guitarist and keyboardist, who composes the material, joining the fun, you certainly get a lot of colour. The Happening gig actually celebrates the release of the brand new Dark Soul album, but very likely they’ll also sample their debut album, Unicorn Attack, and if they get the mood to do a cover, it may as well be from the late legendary Finnish singer and national icon Tapio Rautavaara as from Dmitri Shostakovich.
JUKKA ESKOLA SOUL TRIO (FI)
Jukka Eskola - trumpet
Mikko Helevä - organ
Jaska Lukkarinen - drums
If you are into the grooviest end of jazz, these guys will take you to heaven. Think the likes of Freddy Hubbard, Jimmy Smith or Stanley Turrentine in the 60’s and you are in the right ball park. Of course, they put their own brand on it and the majority of the material is original. Most important, though, is the superbly cool way they channel the soulfulness and warmth of the 60’s black jazz.
Tickets 25/20 €
