Celebrating their 40th anniversary, UMO Jazz Orchestra plays around ten live concerts both in Finland and abroad in the upcoming summer. Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lenny Pickett and Junnu Aaltonen front UMO Jazz Orchestra at Hamburg’s Elbjazz Festival this May.
At the end of May UMO visits one of the major jazz festivals in Germany, the Elbjazz Festival. UMO has three slots at the festival and plays together with singer-songwriter, jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, the legendary ex-Tower of Power tenor saxophonist, the musical director of TV show Saturday Night Live Lenny Pickett, and the “Finnish Coltrane”, 78-year-old founding member of UMO Juhani “Junnu” Aaltonen. Elbjazz is one of the best-known German jazz festivals and it is organised for the sixth time this summer.
UMO takes a step outside its familiar jazz environs by collaborating with the two songwriters for Fenno-Beninese group Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble. Look forward to funk jazz and afrobeat rhythms at the World Village Festival this weekend. The concert is free of charge.
As part of its 40th anniversary year, the UMO Jazz Orchestra will perform along with the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and his trusted friend, composer and bassist Itiberê Zwarg at the Helsinki Festival in August. Zwarg will orchestrate the evening’s programme for UMO and Pascoal and step into the role of bandleader. The Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal plays keyboards, the button accordion, melodica, saxophones, guitars, flutes and different folk instruments. Anything can be used as instruments, including dishes, toys and even the man’s own beard. His music cannot be confined to traditional genre boundaries -- indeed, Magician or Maestro himself refers to it as universal.
UMO at festivals in 2015:
Sun 24 May at Maailma kylässä, Helsinki
UMO – Helsinki – Cotonou
Free entry
Fri 29 & Sat 30 May at Elbjazz Festival, Hamburg, Germany
Dee Dee Bridgewater & UMO feat. Irvin Mayfield
Lenny Pickett & UMO
UMO & Juhani "Junnu" Aaltonen
Tue 7 July at Espa Stage, Helsinki
UMO 40th Anniversary: The Family Reunion fo Blues
Free entry
Thu 9 July at City Festival Jyväskylän kesä
Club For Five & UMO: Mononen & Kärki: A New Take On Tango
Fri 7 August at Jazz-Espa, Helsinki
UMO 40th Anniversary: 1975–2015
Free entry
Wed 19 August at Helsinki Festival
Hermeto Pascoal & Itiberê Zwarg & UMO
Further information and concert calendar: www.umo.fi