Jazz Finland Live

35/30€

21.00 Markus Holkko Quartet (FI)
Markus Holkko – sax; Juuso Rinta – b; Samuli Rautiainen – keyb; Teemu Mustonen – dr, perc

Saxophonist Markus Holkko (b. 1972) began his professional career right at the Finnish top – in a quintet that had won an international competition and whose name foreshadowed the future. Despite this, the two albums (2002, 2004) of U-Street All Stars, formed in 2000 by a group of young students, did not yet leave a long-lasting mark. But all its members have gained recognition in their later endeavours with Timo Lassy, the other saxophone of the quintet and Holkko’s “friendly rival” on stage, leading the pack.

After the fade of U-Street All Stars, Holkko opted out of the group and threw himself into more modern, electronic fusion jazz with his own Markus Holkko Quartet. The time was ripe as Being Here (2007) won the Jazz Emma as the best jazz album of the year – the most prestigious jazz award in Finland. Its nominal successor took, however, exceptionally long to arrive, 17 years in total. The second album of the completely renewed, much younger Markus Holkko Quartet, Eye Of The Universe, was released last May. 

Holkko alludes to the long break on the Introduction track by pondering about creativity and the desire to create something permanent, perhaps even unique. In his time away, he never stopped playing, composing and searching for that something. 

In the last decade, Holkko has been most active with the Lightboxer band and perhaps unexpectedly in a completely different kind of project. He made two albums for a German record company as a multi-style singer-songwriter under the stage name Linear John. The alias refers to Holkko’s motto that “he has always moved forward in a linear fashion, without repetition”.

22.30 Future Food Factory (FI)
Mikko Hassinen – dr, el; Max Zenger – asax, bcl; Mikko Antila – vib; Antti Ahoniemi – b

Mikko Hassinen (b. 1971) is a musician of many styles and forms. He is a percussionist, composer, arranger, conductor and producer who has been a part of the Värttinä folk group for the last ten years. Soon, we will also be the artistic director of a big band, “the symphony orchestra of jazz”, for the second time in his career: January marks the beginning of his three-year term as the fourth artistic director of Turku Jazz Orchestra. 

Of course, Hassinen has also done some composing for jazz orchestras, most recently for the anniversary of Espoo Big Band. Their Blood Red (2021) record is a layered work of a meticulous craftsman and one of Hassinen’s finest. 

But being at the helm of his own ensembles has always been “somewhat painful” for Hassinen, as has “highlighting any of your own works”. Perhaps the only better-known group of Hassinen, Elektro GT, combines various styles of rhythmic music and won a sizeable Teosto Prize with their debut album (2014). The group and its two releases have allowed Hassinen to make the most of his interest in the computer-based post-production and playing with electro-acoustic elements.

Hassinen’s newly formed acoustic four-man group Future Food Factory and its freshly released debut album are much more restrained – or so he wants you to believe. There may be a few surprises along the way, which is a part of the essence of jazz. With Future Food Factory, Hassinen wants to “explore musical ideas from both sides of the axis: composed and fully improvised as well as acoustic and electronic”.

But why Future Food Factory? “The name came to me as an inspirational and motivational ‘request’. I want to think that the best and most interesting projects are still up ahead.”

00.00 Jaska Lukkarinen Trio (FI)
Jaska Lukkarinen – dr; Jussi Kannaste – sax; Antti Lötjönen – b

With a master’s degree in jazz music and over 100 recording projects under his belt, Jaska Lukkarinen (b. 1982) wants to find out as a graduate student at Sibelius Academy how drummers “maintain and release musical energy in jazz” – the mythical swing of jazz.

Lukkarinen released his fourth album One For Joe last year and dedicated it to the master percussionist Philly Joe Jones. The album was the first part of his artistic doctoral degree with the working title “Jazz Drummer’s Role as Communicative Ensemble Musician”, which is slowly coming together alongside his playing career. It was recorded by a quartet formed for a graduation concert, and all its tracks were hand-picked from over 60-year-old compositions.

At Jazz Happening, Lukkarinen will communicate with his long-time trio and through fresh songs created for his second postgraduate concert called Textures. All of them were composed by Mikko Hassinen, a colleague of his with a wealth of musical experience and best known as a jazz drummer.  

“As a composer, Mikko doesn’t define my playing style but rather tries to lay the foundation for improvisational and textural arranging. In my mind, this cooperation is a new innovative way to conduct jazz research and an opportunity to create new Finnish jazz music.” 

Playing fresh compositions of others is not that unusual for Jaska Lukkarinen Trio. Their third and most recent album Origami (2017) was compiled from the songs of Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen, a guitarist, composer, arranger and long-term employer of Lukkarinen.  

The trio’s fourth album made up of Hassinen’s compositions compositions has already been recorded but won’t be released until 2025. It marks the 20th anniversary of playing together for Lukkarinen, tenor saxophonist Jussi Kannaste and double bassist Antti Lötjönen.

Instead of periodic and short-term projects, Lukkarinen values long-term partnerships, as they offer the best platform to develop and deepen your musical expression. “As you get older, you come to realise that music is also about personal chemistry, a more holistic experience.”

55/45 €

14.00 Daydream – The music of Duke Ellington (NO)
Pat Thomas – pno; Per Zanussi – b; Ståle Liavik Solberg – dr

According to the most recent calculation, English pianist Pat Thomas (b. 1960) has released as many as eight records this year: two in a quartet, two in a trio and four on his own. The latest include the acoustic solo piano work The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (2024) and the electronic solo album This is Trick Step (2024), which has been described as “abstract hip-hop” – surprisingly but without exaggeration.

But there is something you have never heard before: his unrecorded Daydream ensemble, who is going to have their second ever concert at Tampere Jazz Happening – nearly three years after the first one at Victoria Jazz Club in Oslo. Still, those familiar with the history of bebop jazz – and perhaps others too – can expect to hear some familiar tunes as Thomas, double bassist Per Zanussi (b. 1977) and drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg (b. 1979) will play the entire Money Jungle (1963) album, a bit of a speciality of its time. Like the afternoon concert at Pakkahuone, the album brought together two generations of jazz musicians, albeit of a completely different status. Recorded in New York on a September Monday, Money Jungle was led by the 63-year-old pianist-composer Duke Ellington, accompanied by Charles Mingus on bass and Max Roach on drums in their forties.

Even if you are familiar with the extensive and wide-ranging catalogue (around 70 albums) of Thomas, who has one concert in Finland under his belt, the trio’s Ellington interpretations can offer something unexpected and counterintuitive. As a pianist and ensemble leader, Thomas is above all an improviser who excels at the deep end of free jazz. But of course, Thomas knows Ellington and has reconstructed his compositions in solo concerts on at least two recordings.

Despite its name, the trio is not a daydream of Thomas. The collaboration was suggested by the Norwegian duo of Solberg and Zanussi, who have a long history of playing together “honest” and “proper” jazz with a rotating cast of musicians in Skikkelig Jazz Trio – as the Norwegian word “skikkelig” implies.

15.45 Orchestra Nazionale della Luna (BE/FI/FR)
Manuel Hermia – sax, fl, bansouri; Kari Ikonen – pno, moog; Nathan Wouters – b; Teun Verbruggen – dr

Orchestra Nazionale della Luna, founded by pianist Kari Ikonen (b. 1973) and saxophonist Manuel Hermia (b. 1967), has a peculiar name and not just because it claims to be “the orchestra of the Moon”.

You see, the four-member ensemble is not an actual orchestra, and the three nationalities of its members – Belgium, France and Finland – hardly qualify as being nazionale, national. 

Yet there are understandable reasons for the teasing name, as the quartet’s music is also difficult to pin down – mainly because of its wide-ranging cultural references. Compared to many other standard jazz quartets, Orchestra Nazionale della Luna revolves around its own musical orbit.

On first listen, part of this peculiarity is based on the quartet’s uncommon sound, as Ikonen’s main instrument alongside piano is the Moog synthesizer. Not only that, Ikonen combines it with his patented Maqiano invention, a micro-tuning system that allows acoustic pianos to play Arabic maqam scales and micro-intervals. Safe to say that the sound is first of its kind in jazz and perhaps in any music.

The soon 10-year-old Orchestra Nazionale della Luna also stands out from the contemporary crowd with its desire to take a stand and playful humour – if you take time to read between the lines. Examples of the former include Hermia’s compositions Doubt Factory and Overexploited, which are from their third album Selene’s View released last spring. Kompelo and E-peli are in turn plays on Finnish words and highlight the humorous side of Ikonen. But the core idea of the orchestra might be best reflected in Transience: the only thing permanent is change. 

17.30 AVA Trio (JP/DE)
Aki Takase – piano; Angelika Niescier – sax; Vincent von Schlippenbach – dj

Pianist and composer Aki Takase (b. 1948), who has made over fifty albums of her own, has visited Finland in several different combinations, including one-on-one with a singer and drummer, as well as her own quintet, which liberally reproduced the compositions of pioneer pianist Fats Waller.

However, it is quite difficult to say anything about Takase’s last Jazz Happening concert. The new Japanic quintet that performed at the Pakkahuone in November 2019 was, in many turns, reminiscent of a boisterous family reunion, with everyone talking at the top of their voices.

The core of the AVA Trio, assembled by Takase, is obviously also the musicians’ free-form, multi-directional conversation. However, no one can yet say how it will sound in the end – not even Takase herself. The AVA Trio is so new that it has never performed before the Tampere concert. In other words, you will witness the world premiere at Pakkahuone.

The musicians have, of course, met each other several times. Takase has performed as a duo with alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier (b. 1970) and has followed the career of Vincent von Schlippenbach (b. 1980) since he was a schoolboy. He is the son of Takase’s German husband, free jazz pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, and a composer who has achieved great success on his own, as a producer and musician, better known in other circles as DJ Illvibe.

Vincent von Schlippenbach first recorded with Takase back in 2004 and is now a regular member of Takase’s band Japanic, whose second album Forte was released in the summer of 2024. AVA Trio’s wild card may still be the Polish-born saxophonist Niescier, who hasn’t performed in Finland before now, which is more than twenty years after her own debut album.

The multi-award-winning Niescier’s long-term playing partners include American cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, but there is also an encounter with a Finn on the album list. Niescer plays standards on the album, where pianist Iiro Rantala’s sextet reminisces about the famous jazz patron, Pannonica de Koenigswarter.

Open event