TUMfest celebrates Juhani Aaltonen's 70th anniversary

TUMfest06, a festival of improvised and "truly new music", will take place in Savoy Theatre, Helsinki, on January 28–29th. The second day of the festival is dedicated to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of saxophonist, flutist Juhani Aaltonen.

The marathon concert entitled 'A Futuristic Retrospective: Juhani Aaltonen@70' will highlight the lifetime work of Aaltonen with four different line-ups that bring to the fore distinct aspects of him as a musician. The first half of the programme is dedicated to three composers that have had an important influence on Aaltonen's career: Henrik Otto Donner, Heikki Sarmanto, and Edward Vesala.

The new work of Donner will be premiered by the Grex Musicus Chamber Choir with Aaltonen as a soloist. Then, duo Aaltonen-Sarmanto will treat the compositions of Sarmanto in an improvisational manner. The first half closes with new arrangements of the music of Vesala, performed by the 13-piece line-up led by Iro Haarla.

The second period of the concert will stage a quartet specially formed for the jubilee concert and featuring Aaltonen, Raoul Björkenheim on guitar, Reggie Workman on bass, and Andrew Cyrille on drums.

TUM Records will release the new album 'Illusion Of A Ballad' of Aaltonen's regular trio with Ulf Krokfors and Tom Nekljudow upon the festival. The previous recording of the group was awarded as the best jazz recording of the year 2004.

The first day of the festival, Saturday 28th, will present other saxophonists such as Mikko Innanen, Sam Rivers and Greg Osby.

Mika Kauhanen/Fimic
4 January, 2006