UMO Jazz Orchestra has released the programme for spring 2016. We will be in for a mix of renowned international guests and a few ultra-Finnish numbers. Tickets to all concerts are now available for purchase.
This spring, UMO is proud to join forces with the recent Grammy-nominee, saxophonist Joshua Redman. Known for his robust sound and charismatic expression, Redman has not only been a rare guest in Finland but a rare guest to front a big band. The two big will team up at Savoy Theatre on 5 April.
Another international face to feature the big band within a few months will be vocalist Dean Bowman an artist who has been described as a jazz singer with the presence of a rocker. UMO and Bowman will give three church concerts in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Scheduled for the Holy Week, the concert series will consist of gospel and Afro-American spirituals in big band arrangements.
February will see UMO and Nicole Willis tackle topical issues in their collaborative show at the Savoy Theatre.
“We have compiled a programme that deals with such pressing and melancholy issues as war, racism and hard times but not without tints of hope and some lighter themes thrown in. The audience can expect an explosion of soul and funk," promises the velvet-throat Nicole Willis of The Soul Investigators. A number of selected songs from Willis’s and The Soul Investigators’ repertory have been arranged by multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tenor – a familiar guest in UMO’s ranks. Tenor’s trademark, epic and cinematic atmosphere, will pervade the new renditions.
Concert Tribuutti Juicelle (A Tribute to Juice) in early May, will be dedicated to the late Juice Leskinen, one of Finland’s best-known rock artists. A medley of Leskinen’s evergreens and lesser pearls will be interpreted by a host of guest soloists, including Jonna Tervomaa, Anna Puu, Aino Venna, Jimi Tenor, Jarkko Martikainen and Paleface. Prepare yourself for multi-artistic, different, funny and exciting new takes.
Late May, in turn, has Club For Five vocalist Susanna Lukkarinen and UMO delve into the repertory of the most notable jazz singer of all time, Ella Fitzgerald. The concert will restore classic pieces made popular by Ella carefully into their original form as they were recorded back in the golden era of big band music.
UMO will also be back in Koko Jazz Club and Helsinki’s Cultural venues this spring. In January, the orchestra celebrates the 70th anniversary of Eero Koivistoinen together with the man himself. A founding member of UMO and its one-time artistic director, Koivistoinen will front the big band in four anniversary concerts. In March, UMO will tune their instruments to eastern scales and tackle the fruit of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s collaboration, “The Far East Suite”, inspired by Ellington’s extensive 1960s tours in the Near and Far East. In April, UMO will be joined by a veritable veteran, the Wigwam keyboardist, vocalist, composer and lyricist Jukka Gustavson in a concert that features brand new, arrangements of Gustavson’s and Esa Onttonen’s works, commissioned specifically for this line-up. Friends of the jazz organ know that this will be a special treat.
An old proverb has that there is no such thing as a free lunch. However, such a thing does exist as a free lunch concert! UMO, Savoy Theatre and Ravintola Presto will co-organise three free lunch concerts in February and March. The programme will be composed of blues and big band classics from such giants as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones. The concerts begin at noon and those interested in food for body may make an order either before or after enjoying a sixty-minute portion of food for soul.
UMO is a professional Finnish big band, performing new jazz and related music across the board. Contemporary music being one of UMO’s main focuses the orchestra commissions and performs new material from Finnish composers regularly. Indeed, the group is a key player in making Finnish music better known both in- and outside its country of origin; in providing a school of practical experience for promising young musicians and in enhancing the versatility of Finnish jazz culture. The members come from the top of Finnish jazz. UMO is regarded as one of the leading big bands of the world.