The recently-launched cultural coalition, Jazz City Turku, which has seen three local players – the concert series Flame Jazz, the big band Turku Jazz Orchestra and the Turku Jazz Festival – join forces, has proved this spring that together is better than alone. It now looks more than likely that the tight co-operation will result in the most successful jazz year the city has ever seen.
Operating now for the very first year, the project Turku Jazz City has brought jazz to the old capital in an unprecedented way. Having a big band, a concert series and a festival unite under the same brand name and production machinery, the project has proven to be a success in several areas: the number of attendees in concerts grew; funding improved; media visibility increased and the artistic quality reached an international level.
Twenty-one jazz events were organised in the spring season, with 27 groups in total performing in them. The majority of the events were sold out and the number of attendees was approximately 5000 people in total. The venues ranged from intimate clubs to concert halls and cruise ships.
The spring programme of Jazz City Turku comprised top-notch Finnish and international names. As to Flame Jazz, the concert series culminated in American pianist Brad Mehldau’s solo concert at the Sigyn Hall. As promoting local jazz is one of the main aims of the project, it is fitting that the big band composition competition was one of the highlights of Turku Jazz Orchestra’s spring season. Flame Jazz and Turku Jazz Orchestra closed their season at the Domino Theatre in a collaboration concert with the dazzling vocalist Aili Ikonen to a full house.
Launched with the help of a grant given by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jazz City Turku aims first and foremost to develop freelance artists’ working opportunities, and, indeed, the first half-year showed that through the linking of networks a better level of sustainable employment for local jazz musicians can be achieved. When other main funders include the City of Turku and the Varsinais-Suomi Regional Fund of Finnish Cultural Foundation, it is clear enough that the project has both artists’ and decision-makers’ support.
At present, the Jazz City Turku producers have their eyes turned to the upcoming Turku Jazz Festival. This Finland’s second oldest jazz festival will now be organised for the very first time as a part of the Jazz City Turku project – expectations are, naturally, great.
This summer, Turku Jazz Festival delivers a versatile mix of first-class Finnish jazz acts, including the fixed star saxophonist Jukka Perko; the cult group Dalindèo; the legendary saxophonist-composer Eero Koivistoinen and the charismatic vocalist Nina Mya who will be presenting her brand new material to the TJF audience. Of course, local flavour will be strong, too, with Turku’s very own Turku Jazz Orchestra as the cherry on the cake. The big band will plunge into the world of Quentin Tarantino with the virtuoso guitarist Teemu Viinikainen in their lead.
Take a peek at the festival programme here!