Back to New World Finn Home Page New World Finn Autumn 2002
Two Recent Finnish
Jazz Recordings
Ahava, Ahava, Fiasko Records, Helsinki, FRCD-7 (2001)
Baritone, Paroni Paakkunainen, Dragon Recordings, Stockholm, DRCD 376 (2002)
by Gerry Luoma Henkel
Two recordings by jazz players from Finland recently appeared in my mailbox. Both of them are deeply based in traditional jazz, yet will be welcomed by non-jazz aficionados as well. One is the premiere recording by the group Ahava - it is simply titled "Ahava". The second recording is by Seppo Paroni Paakkunainen called "Baritone".
The recording by the group Ahava shines with a beautiful sunny Sunday morning light. I would be tempted to not even call it jazz, but instead describe it as musical conversations between voice, piano, saxophone and percussion. It's jazz because the musicians are jazz musicians and think in those terms, even though they go way beyond it.
"Baritone", the recording by Paakkunainen, is the kind of jazz that swings. It is full of melody and bounce. If you've listened to Paakkunainen before, you may be expecting wild forays into "free" jazz, ala John Coltrane. You will hear a little bit of that on this cd, but almost all of it is cool, swinging jazz, music that makes you tap your feet and smile.
jazz that tells stories
"Ahava" is an old Finnish word meaning a dry and cool springwind. In the photo above is the group Ahava: vocalist Mia Simanainen, drummer Mika Kallio, pianist Kari Ikonen, and saxophonist/flutist Sonny Heinilä,
Ahava is a very unique group on the Finnish jazz landscape for a couple of reasons. One is that it is led by Mia Simanainen - it is very rare to see a woman leading a jazz band in Finland (or the US for that matter). Members of the band besides Mia are Kari Ikonen, piano; Sonny Heinilä, sax and other reeds; and Mika Kallio, drums and percussion.
Another reason is that they are not the usual kind of jazz band that you will hear in a club late at night where the soloists dig into the tunes and blow the listeners away. Instead, Ahava is jazz that tells stories. This is music that you want to sit down with and really listen to it's music for a sunny Sunday morning or afternoon. A comparison could be made to the music of Paul Winter or the group Oregon.
In Usvan Neito (The Maiden of Mist) Mia begins to drift from the words of the songs into pure vocal sounds, and Sonny Heinilä's sax follows her voice down and around and leads her to the new plateau (or is it a meadow in the woods?). That's when we are so happy to be alive and privy to musical sounds that are really colorful light waves.
Or, take the tune Agda Airi. Mia says that it is about her grandmother. "Agda Airi is one of the pieces that just occurred to me, I don't remember any kind of effort being connected to the process. As I was a little girl, my granny Agda Airi used to tell me how people lived when she was young. In my mind those stories mixed with the atmosphere I sensed while staying there with my grandparents. That is the mood where the piece of music came from...it all was in me."
The piece begins with a dialogue between Sonny on sax and Mia vocalizing (no words). It is as if the sax is saying, now we will tell the story of Mia's grandmother. Within the first few measures Mia and Sonny set the scene. Then Mika Kallio on drums and Kari Ikonen on piano join in and begin telling part of the story. We listen carefully as in our mind's ear we hear grandma and grandpa talking to each other. Sax and voice become pure artistic idealizations of old stories. The music artfully transforms and remembers the daily life of Mia's grandparents.
Then move on to the next tune on the cd Jos Oisit (If Only). In some ways, this piece is more like traditional jazz. The form is recognizable and the arrangement is tighter. It is less a "story" and more like a "regular" jazz piece. Yet, even here, Mia's voice is more than a vehicle for singing the words. It is an instrument that plays and interacts with sax and piano. She does the same on the next song Sato where there is a section of pure improvisation between sax, voice, and piano in the middle of the tune . This isn't what we would usually call "scatting", this is different, it is voice as instrument.
Mia Simanainen, who teaches at the Sibelius Academy jazz department, was born in Lahti, a medium-sized city 100 km north of Helsinki. She says her sources of musical inspiration are from nature. "I used to spend all my summers with my grandparents in eastern Finland, Pohjois-Karjala, near Outokumpu. There I had a chance to grow up with nature. As a teenager I began to write and describe my feelings about nature in a more poetic way and felt that my inner self was waking up by doing that something subtle was happening then. So I feel it was actually nature that made me grow up and see the essential things in life. That is perhaps the reason for my feeling that nature is vibrating in me, and that is where the inspiration comes from."
The group Ahava came together when Mia went looking for others who could express her musical visions. "I had a question in my mind: what exactly is the music I want to do and how could I make it happen. The bands I had worked with were not what I was searching for, so I just had to try something else, something more of my own. One of the problems then was that my own taste for music was changing, I did not know exactly what to try.
"Mika and Kari were studying at the Sibelius Academy then, and Sonny taught there. I had played with Mika and knew that he would be the only possible drummer for me. I was not familiar with Kari's playing much beforehand, his energetic touch and style was a very pleasant surprise to me. Sonny had been my teacher, and I discovered his playing when listening to his own group. I soon realized how important it was for me to try something with these musicians and only later I realized how great the combination is and how much it has developed my ability for music-making. Without these musicians I wouldn't have found what I've found. Ahava is a beautiful chance for me to do my best."
Mia's musical expression is not limited to Ahava. She is also a member of an acapella quartet of women singers called JimJamMurMur: Mirja Mäkelä, Jenny Robson, and Johanna Iivanainen.
Mia's voice is the center of all of Ahava's music. Yet the other band members also shine intensely. Their musical talent is evident on this cd, and it is also recognized by their musical peers.
In 2001 the "Yrjö (Georgie)" award was given to the Sonny Heinilä, the sax player in Ahava. Since 1967, the Finnish Jazz Federation has acknowledged 33 musicians one per year with the "Yrjö ". This is probably one of the highest awards any jazz musican in Finland can receive.
Deeply involved with the Finnish jazz scene since the late 80's, Heinilä has been described as a "torchbearer of the thoroughly Nordic saxophone expression" once pioneered by players such as Garbarek of Norway.
Pianist Kari Ikonen is also a composer. He recently won the first prize with his work Peikkola at the seventh Scrivere In Jazz 2002 competition organized by the Sardinia Jazz Orchestra. Ikonen was awarded the first prize in the "free" compositions category. The competition was participated in by 45 composers from Europe and America.
Drummer and percussionist Mika Kallio, was awarded the 2nd prize at the Monaco International Jazz Soloist Competition in the summer of 1999.
back to his first love
Paroni Paakkunainen, Lars Sjösten, and Peter Gullin during the recording session for "Baritone".
Seppo "Paroni" Paakkunainen, composer and saxophonist, this year released a new recording called "Baritone". Paakkunainen was the sixth musican to receive the "Yrjö" award. That was in 1973, making him one of the "old men" of jazz in Finland, along with players like Eero Koivistoinen, Heikki Sarmanto, Juhani Aaltonen, and Jukka Tolonen.
For more than 40 years he has been known in Finland for his work in bringing ancient Finnish folk tunes into the contemporary world of jazz and light music. This type of music came to be known as "Tano" music defined as symphonically treated jazz based on folk themes.
He is also known for his 30 year collaboration with Aillohas, the Sami joiker who died last year. (This CD ends with a tribute to Aillohas, Vuoi, Aillohas, Vuoi!.)
Another aspect of Paakkunainen's career has been his involvement with "free" jazz - improvisation in the style of jazz that grew out of the be-bop era. He continues to play this type of music with Trio Nueva Finlandia, a group that released a CD "Ha! What's Going On?" in 1998.
However, in this his newest recording, he goes back to his first love, the type of lyrical jazz music he first heard exquisitely presented by Lars Gullin, Swedish baritone sax composer and player.
Paakkunainen writes of Gullin, "...the way Lars kept his compositional ideals in his improvisations chorus after chorus just astounded me. As a melodist, Gullin is one of the greatest artists in jazz."
"Baritone" is Pakkunainen's tribute to the Swede Gullin. And the Swedes returned the favor to him by awarding Paakkunainen the prestigious Lars Gullin Prize in 2001 - the first time a non-Swede has won it.
Lars Sjösten, Gullin's pianist for many years, plays on this recording, as well as Gullin's son Peter. Sjösten is also the composer of a beautiful piece (Ballad För Namne) on the CD. Two of the all-time great Finnish players Pekka Sarmanto on bass, and Reiska Laine on drums also accompany Paakkunainen. Tero Saarti is the trumpet player on Cool and Blue, a tune that is inspired by both a Norwegian psalm and Miles Davis.
The first three tunes are dedicated to Paakkunainen's grandchildren, the fourth dedicated to his wife Mimmu, the sixth to Lars Gullin, the eighth tune to his children Nikopetri and Riikamaria, and the last to Aillohas. These dedications are indicative of how Paakkunainen views this recording as a summing up of much of his musical career. Musically he covers the broad range of jazz he's played all his life, and emotionally he recognizes his family and friends as sources of inspiration.
Seven of the eleven tunes are composed by Paakkunainen. Two of them are based in part on the Karelian lament style - the "crying" tradition: Lagrimas para Lars (Tears For Lars), and Vuoi, Aillohas, Vuoi!.
Tears for Lars is dedicated to Gullin and was recorded live. You can hear the melody laid out in the feeling of the lament, and then you listen as it is picked up in a jazz improvisatory manner and developed freely, yet with a restraint that is respectful of the man that it was written for. A listener can't help but be reminded of other music of the world (blues for instance) that comes out of sadness but rises into a lighter place.
What do you say about someone who dies who you were very close to for half of your life, someone you loved dearly in a spiritual way? If you are Paroni Paakkunainen and your dear friend Aillohas (Nils-Aslak Valkeapää) passes away, you will sing with your heart and your music. In the tune Vuoi, Aillohas, Vuoi!, you hear Paakkunainen's sadness and loss of a friend. Yet, you also hear in the slow measured rythyms a sense of triumph, you hear Paroni saying that Aillohas is dead, but his spirit lives.
Both Ahava and Baritone CD's are available online from Digelius Records in Helsinki.
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