The 39th International Tampere Jazz Happening will take place from October 29th to November 1st, 2020 at Tullikamari's Pakkahuone and Restaurant Telakka. For the first time in the history of the festival, all artists are domestic. Some concerts will also be streamed, so the audience can also participate in the festival remotely.
On Thursday October 29th at the opening concert Spotlight on Tampere, three local ensembles Kielo Kärkkäinen & Taming May, Masa Orpana Honk and Utopianisti will take the stage at Pakkahuone. Admission to the opening concert is free, to enable an accessible, low threshold entry in to modern jazz. The concert can also be watched remotely from the tiketti.stream service.
From Friday onward, the festival will spread also to Telakka. Iro Haarla Quartet and Jukka Gustavson Prognosis will perform in the Pakkahuone on Friday after the Yrjö Prize is awarded by Jazz Finland. Representatives of the younger generation, Åland-based drummer-singer Amanda Blomqvist and the band of singer-songwriter Selma Savolainen, Selma Juudit Alessandra will both perform at Telakka.
On Saturday October 31st, the day concert at Pakkahuone begins with one of the cornerstones of domestic jazz, drummer Reiska Laine with his quintet. The other performer of the day's concert is Joakim Berghäll's Dark Roast 006. In the evening, the brightest stars of Finnish jazz at the moment, saxophonist Timo Lassy & drummer Teppo Mäkynen's duo and bassist Antti Lötjönen's new band Quintet East, will take the stage in turn.
Saturday's programme at Telakka include performances by three bands, the first of which is Gourmet. After Gourmet, Mikko Pettinen Why Not and MMQ will take over Telakka's stage.
On Sunday November 1st the afternoon concert in Pakkahuone will be opened by the duo of trumpet player Verneri Pohjola and pianist Tuomo Prättälä. After them, the Mortality series consisting of compositions by Tampere-based music influencer Tapio Ylinen will be heard. At the end of the event, Timo Lassy Band will perform.
The festival will finish in the traditional way with Telakka's free concert, which will feature the local Matti Salo Quartet this year. The concert will also be heard live on Yle Radio 1.
This year, all of Pakkahuone's concerts can also be seen remotely as high-quality streaming broadcasts. With the exception of Thursday's opening concert, streams are subject to a fee (tickets € 10). The stream camera operation is handled by Livekuva Oy, sound is provided by Yleisradio and the streaming platform is Tiketti Stream. The stream tickets, as well as regular concert tickets, are sold by Tiketti.
Tampere Jazz Happening's corona instructions can be found at tamperejazz.fi/koronaohjeistus. The festival has prepared an infection prevention plan in cooperation with the City of Tampere's infectious disease doctor.
Joakim Berghäll Dark Roast 006 © Antti Kujanpää