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SaloJazz finds many ways to collaborate

23.11.2020 | blog

SaloJazz came to existence on a 2012 June evening at a bus stop in front of a local supermarket, as a result of a chance meeting with Ilkka Rantamäki, the Regional Artist for jazz music at that time. We both had identified a hole in the Salo event scene, waiting to be filled with an annual music event for adult audiences. We decided to go ahead and organise one. Guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg and his quartet had a Finnish tour organised for late September that year, and that determined the dates for the new festival. We added three local ensembles, and the program for the inaugural event was complete.  Our main incentive was to kick-start a high-end music event which would grow steadily and still be around in ten years’ time. 

Jazz exports in the Coronavirus era

28.8.2020 | blog

This topic feels challenging to write about now when there is hardly any movement from Finland to abroad. The second season of Jazz Finland International, a project administered by Jazz Finland and designed to improve the export skills of Finnish jazz enterprises, was launched with positive expectations last year, but has ground to a halt this spring due to the worsening Coronavirus maelstrom. Jazz professionals still have their sights set internationally, but opportunities remain far and few between, despite many solid plans and available export support funds. Finland is far away from continental Europe, let alone the Americas or Asia, which remain effectively out of reach due to various restrictions regarding travel and size of gatherings. The situation would be very different if we were located in an area such as the south of Germany, just a few hours’ easy drive from a range of other European countries where, like in Finland, small events are still organised – although mostly programmed with local acts.    

The jazz family keeps growing and evolving

25.5.2020 | blog

When I participated in my first Europe Jazz Network conference in Istanbul in 2005, the network had 52 member organisations and it was easy to fit everyone into the family portrait. Since then, EJN has been steadily growing and in our board meeting this March it was noted that there are now 164 members.