Jazz Articles

Tapani Rinne / Tero Majamaki: Inside the temple

by Anthony Shaw
July 1, 2011

With a pedigree stretching back to the founder of Finnish free jazz, Edward Vesala, Tapani Rinne has, over the years, consorted with multiple musicians from his homeland, winning many Finnish awards for his achievements. The main vehicle for exploring his claimed territory--the borders of experimental and techno-jazz--has been RinneRadio, featuring percussionist Juuso Hannikainen and electronicist Verneri Lume. Over 23 years, Rinne has recorded over 15 albums with the band, while maintaining a steady output of solo recordings as well.

Pipoka: Veto

by Anthony Shaw
April 12, 2011

Pipoka is a Finnish trio, with its roots firmly entwined around its two active founder members, accordionist Veli Kujala and guitarist Jarmo Julkinen. Veto is still anchored in the original conception of chamber jazz, with highly structured pieces that provide ample opportunities for exploration and development, as well as a considerable dose of Latin America. Key to this concept is versatility of approach and participants. Whereas its self-titled, 2004 debut (also on Rockadillo) featured compositions by original ...

KTU: Quiver

by John Kelman
June 15, 2009

There's often considerable difference between live and studio recording, where the facility's greater capacity for control and manipulation can almost become an additional band member. Still, for some the difference is a subtle one. In the case of KTU--a collective that began with half of King Crimson (Warr guitarist Trey Gunn and traps/button man Pat Mastelotto) working together as TU, accordionist Kimo Pohjonen and sampler Samuli Kosminen (both Finns)--there's a world of a difference. The group's debut, 8 Armed Monkey ...

Jaska Lukkarinen Trio: Trane Ear

by Anthony Shaw
June 11, 2009

This is an album with origins deep in the heart of the Finnish nu-jazz fraternity, featuring three alumni of the Folk and Jazz Department of the national Sibelius Academy. However Jaska Lukkarinen has learned more than just percussion and drums, having spent a season at the Manhattan School of Drumming, where the concept of a drum-led jazz trio took root.

Encouraged by his mentor there, John Riley, and inspired by music such as Dave Holland's Triplicate (ECM, 1988), ...

RinneRadio: Pole Stars

by Anthony Shaw
April 29, 2009

Tapani Rinne is synonymous with the Finnish band Rinneradio, which he steered since its inception as an offshoot from fellow countryman Edvard Vesala in the late 1980s. Over the years, Rinne has ventured into the spheres of hip-hop and electronica, straight fusion, dark dub, lush ambient soundscapes, even Saami yoik singing. But always he has kept one or two fingers in the jazz pot.

Pole Stars shows Rinne and his recent collaborators, Verneri Lumi (electronics) and Juuso Hannukainen (percussion), bending ...

RinneRadio: RinneRadio 20th Anniversary Album

by Anthony Shaw
December 26, 2008

Tapani Rinne is a name as integral to the contemporary Finnish music scene as is Jean Sibelius. Which doesn't mean to say that Sibelius was a covert jazz connoisseur, nor that Rinne has achieved worldwide acclaim amongst the general listening public. But to any who have followed current trends in modern Scandinavian music, be it hip hop from Jimi Tenor or the classical crossover of violinist Pekka Kuusisto, the band RinneRadio is synonymous with experimentation both saxophonic and electronic.

Tiit Kikas: String Theory

by Anthony Shaw
September 9, 2007

Estonia is the smallest of the newly independent Baltic states, now able to boast its lengthy cultural heritage free of the confines of Soviet constraint. Violinist Tiit Kikas rode the surge of post-independence nationalist enthusiasm before extending his horizons across the Baltic to study in neighboring Finland.

On returning home, he spread his talents to include improvisational work in the folk idiom with the band Dagö, before tackling the composition of music for the Eurovision program in 2002. ...

Jarmo Saari SOLU: The Making of Love

by Anthony Shaw
April 29, 2007

As Jarmo Saari explains on his website, the topic of The Making of Love has motivated and emasculated humankind since the beginning of time. So do we need yet another interpretation?

The album expands the Finnish guitarist's already long discography, which ranges from a big band suite for the UMO Jazz Orchestra to his first solo album, the guitar-based excursion into madcap and mischievous electronica Solu (Rockadillo, 2004). On all his releases Saari shows his mastery of traditional guitar rhythmic ...

Jarmo Saari: Solu

by Anthony Shaw
September 25, 2004

The use of realia on disc might well have gone the same way as Syd Barrett's homemade attempts to capture the sounds of a live motorbike for his piece Rhamadan--into the cutting bin. But his progenitors succeeded with the same sound for Atom Heart Mother , and the recording industry progressed towards today's super sampling scenario. “Finland's hardest working professional guitarist" Jarmo Saari is doing his modest best to undo and yet confirm this trend some way by creating his ...

Kimmo Pohjonen: Kluster

by Matthew Wuethrich
June 15, 2002

You know that old accordion your grandfather has sitting around from his days in the Old Milwaukee Polka Band? Well, Kimmo Pohjonen has dragged it from the attic, dusted it off, hooked it up to a Fender tube amp and proceeded to pull, push, pound, scrape and bend every note conceivable from it. Pohjonen hails from Finland, but he travels far beyond the borders of Finnish folk music. With the help of Samuli Kosminen, who samples and then processes Pohjonen's ...