1. Niklas Winter tours Japan again
Jazz guitarist and composer Niklas Winter will tour Japan 1-7 December. Winter will be performing with three different groups: his own Niklas Winter Quartet, as a duo with pianist Eisuke Kato, and together with singer Maria Eva´s ensemble. Niklas Winter is a frequent guest star in Japan and his ninth tour includes concerts in the cities of Chigasaki, Yokohama, Kobe and Osaka.
2. 'Grands Froids' brings Finnish jazz to France
Cultural centre Le Fanal in the city of Saint Nazaire in western France organizes a Nordic event series, dubbed "Grands Froids", 1-7 February 2010. The Finnish jazz contribution to the series includes two jazz acts: Gourmet, a sextet lead by guitarist Esa Onttonen and saxophonist Mikko Innanen on 5 February and the reeds/percussion duo Mikko Innanen & Mika Kallio on 6 February.
3. Guitarist Teemu Viinikainen received the Yrjö Award
Guitarist Teemu Viinikainen has received the yearly jazz prize Yrjö ("Georgie Award"). He is the 42nd musician to receive the highest accolade in Finnish jazz.
Viinikainen (born 1975) leads an active career in the Finnish jazz scene. His inspiring and rhythmically and technically remarkable playing can be heard in the ensembles Juurihoito, Bronson, U-Street All Stars, Jussi Lehtonen Band to name but a few.
4. Composer Sid Hille established his own big band
A debut CD 'DiSiSiD' by a brand new big band, The Sid Hille Jazz Orchestra, was released on 2 November on SatnaMusic. The release offers a versatile range of material: it includes an album of two live recordings and a DVD, which consist of a concert recording and a documentary film.
The Sid Hille Jazz Orchestra features 18 Finnish jazz household names, for example trumpeter Kalevi Louhivuori, drummer Teppo Mäkynen, saxophonist Manuel Dunkel and guitarist Teemu Viinikainen.
5. Alexi Tuomarila and Olavi Louhivuori play with Tomasz Stanko Quintet
Two acclaimed jazz instrumentalists, pianist Alexi Tuomarila and drummer Olavi Louhivuori play with Tomasz Stanko Quintet on the group´s new album 'Dark Eyes', released by the famed label ECM.
Tuomarila and Louhivuori also play with the quintet on the ongoing 'Dark Eyes' release tour in Europe. In the beginning of next year, the US-Asia release tour takes the ensemble together with its Finnish reinforcements for example to the legendary Birdland in New York and to the San Francisco Jazz Festival.
NEW RELEASES
- Pianist Aki Rissanen´s new effort 'Beautiful Anxiety', released on the US-based label KSJazz, came out in November.
- A promising trio debut by pianist Joonas Haavisto (b. 1982) is titled 'Blue Waters' (Rockadillo Records).
- Sirius Sextet, lead by guitarist Aki Haarala, has also released their debut 'Tokyo Teleport' (Texicalli) - albumful of progressive jazz with soul spices.
- 'Live in Terrassa', the new album by André Sumelius Quartet, is distributed only online - check out the web page of the musicians: http://www.artonearth.com/andresumelius
- Rautio-Bukowski Quartet (Dominik Bukowski, vibes; Piotr Lemanzyk, bass; Joonatan Rautio, sax; Ville Pynssi, drums) has released their debut album 'Vice Versa' on Soliton.
- Olli Ojajärvi Trio, featuring Olli Ojajärvi (sax), Jan Simons (bass) and Markku Ounaskari (drums), released their album 'Out of Mind' on Ricky-Tick Records. The eagerly-awaited second album by Dalindèo is scheduled for release on the same label in January 2010.
FIMIC WEB CALENDAR AT YOUR DISPOSAL
Fimic´s interactive event calendar features all the genres of Finnish music. For jazz, the calendar includes performances of Finnish music outside Finland. In order to stay updated, we warmly encourage all concert and tour organizers as well as artists themselves to add their Finnish music events to the calendar. For adding events, go to www.fimic.fi > Event Calendar > Add new event.
OUR NEXT E-MAIL INFO
The next Finnish Jazz News will be mailed during the first week of March 2010.
COMMENTS TO FIMIC
Please e-mail any comments regarding the newsletters to Communications Editor, Ms. Helen Metsä: helen.metsa@fimic.fi
CONTACT INFORMATION, JAZZ
Ms. Henna Salo, Coordinator, Popular Music: henna.salo@fimic.fi
Ms. Heli Lampi, Promotion Manager: heli.lampi@fimic.fi
Finnish Music Information Centre (Fimic)
Lauttasaarentie 1, FI-00200 Helsinki, Finland
tel. +358 9 6810 1313
fa x +358 9 682 0770
info@fimic.fi
http://www.fimic.fi
