Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle and the Finnish Jazz Federation celebrate the federation's 50-year-anniversary by putting together an impressive history of Finnish jazz.
Finnish Jazz Federation - Jazzliitto - celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The biggest project of their anniversary is a story of Finnish jazz from year 1966 to 2016: a history of the Finnish Jazz Federation. The history will be released in Finnish on April 22nd online on this Jazz Finland website. The audiovisual archive of the Finnish Broadcasting Company offers a preview over the past 50 years here.
If you can't read Finnish, don't worry. At least music itself is an international language. The history of Finnish jazz is also present at April Jazz Festival in Espoo on the 21st of April.
Jazzliitto’s celebration orchestra plays Finnish jazz music and the arrangements of music pieces by saxophonist Mikko Innanen. All members of the orchestra and all soloists have been awarded over the years with the “Georgie Prize” (Yrjö -palkinto), which is the most prestigious annual jazz prize in Finland.
Mikko Innanen, saxophone
Kari Ikonen, piano
Teemu Viinikainen, guitar
Ulf Krokfors, bass
Teppo Mäkynen, drums
Anna-Mari Kähärä, vocals
Eero Koivistoinen, saxophone
Seppo “Paroni” Paakkunainen, saxophone, flute
Severi Pyysalo, vibraphone
Antti Sarpila, klarinetti, saxophone