Jazz Finland Live

Open event

Young musicians playing on the F-Musiikki Stage at the lobby of Espoo Cultural Centre from Wednesday to Saturday. Free entry!

Pop/Jazz Konservatorio
klo 17.50 –18.00 Luova Prosessi
klo 19.15 – 20.00 kirsikka-alisa

Open event

NOMFUSI - THE POWER VOCALIST FROM SOUTH AFRICA

The essence of Mama Africa meets the spirit of Township music and Afro-Soul in a pint-sized package of a striking, gigantic voice and tons of charm.

Nomfusi is a self-taught singer-songwriter, whose music incorporates afropop, afrosoul, gospel and ballads with maskandi guitars and groovy South African township rhythms. As a young girl, Nomfusi used to accompany her mother to weekly sangoma rituals, where she developed interest in music, singing and dancing. She is now revered across the world for her joyful and energetic stage performances. The tiny singer transforms into a packet of dynamite the moment she holds a microphone.

Nomfusi can go to this place where music becomes much more than what we hear. She can touch your soul by letting down her own guards and just sings from the heart - pure gold. With “The Red Stoep" , her new album released in 2021, Nomfusi invites everyone to experience the stories of her African heritage through the music.

As the preserver of her mother tongue Xhosa, which gives the songs an exotic touch through the special clicking noises when pronouncing them, she consciously writes the lyrics to her songs in English and Xhosa.

She has performed across Europe and Canada at prestigious festivals including WOMAD, FMM Sines, Lugano Jazz, Stimmen and Afrikadey and shared stages with big stars like Angelique Kidjo, Hugh Masekela and Lionel Richie.

Nomfusi Ngonyama, vocals (ZA)
Mark Williams, guitar (ZA)
Sebastian Gieck, bass (DE)
Klaus Brennsteiner, drums (AT)
John Amoako, keys (GH)

Tickets 45/40 € + order fees (from 1,50 €), Lippu.fi
Duration approx. 1h 30min, no intermission

Tapiola Hall, Espoo Cultural Centre
Kulttuuriaukio 2, 02100 Espoo (Google Maps / HSL Journey Planner)

Open event

7:30pm doors
8pm Orchestra Nazionale Della Luna
approx. 9pm intermission
approx. 9:30pm James Brandon Lewis Quartet

Tickets €36/31 + order fees (from €1.50), Lippu.fi
Duration approx. 2h 45min with intermission

Louhi Hall, Espoo Cultural Centre
Kulttuuriaukio 2, 02100 Espoo (Google Maps / HSL Journey Planner)

James Brandon Lewis Quartet

In their Finnish debute, the quartet led by James Brandon Lewis will treat the festival audience with fresh material!

Endorsed by giants like Sonny Rollins, the charismatic saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis is currently one of the most recognized musicians on the international contemporary jazz scene. The band’s two widely acclaimed albums, Molecular (2020) and Code of Being (2022), will be followed their third album Transfiguration, to be released in February. Just in time for their first visit to Finland!

“When I listen to you, I listen to Buddha, I listen to Confucius… I listen to the deeper meaning of life. You are keeping the world in balance.” – Sonny Rollins

In recent years, James Brandon Lewis has been chosen as the most promising tenor saxophonist in an international critics’ poll by Downbeat magazine, and the best saxophonist by the American Jazz Journalists Association. The saxophonist has balanced deep gospel-inspired spirituality with the wildness of free jazz and a strong foundation of funk and hip-hop, making him a magnificent extension of the legacies of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.

As a group, the four exceptional musicians, create an urgent ensemble sound, moving through a broad palette of sound-colours, rhythms and moods, charged with energy.

James Brandon Lewis, saxophone(US)
Aruán Ortiz, piano (CU)
Brad Jones, bass (US)
Chad Taylor, drums (US)

Orchestra Nazionale Della Luna

Founded by its chief conductors Manuel Hermia and Kari Ikonen in 2015, Orchestra Nazionale della Luna has quickly become one of the most important orchestras on the Moon. Its diverse and highly original repertoire, as well as its inventive and energetic way of playing is fascinating lunatics and music lovers all over the Moon and even on Earth. Their third album is observing Earth's problems in the eyes of Selene, the goddess of the Moon. Selene’s View will be released this spring by highly renowned label BMC, and in April the orchestra lands on Earth again, for the pleasure and distraction of jazz lovers!

“Those who believe that everything has been said about the sax-piano-bass-drums quartet have not yet heard Orchestra Nazionale Della Luna: these four will shake their ears!” 
– Jean-Pierre Goffin, Jazzhalo (BE)

Manuel Hermia, saxophones, flute & bansouri (BE)
Kari Ikonen, piano & moog synthesizer (FI)
Sébastien Boisseau, double bass (FR)
Teun Verbruggen, drums (BE)

Open event

The UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra will bring a breath of Spain to April Jazz Festival. Full size big band, top flamenco music and flamenco dance experts from Spain, and a flamenco dance group of young Finns join their forces and show their talent at the gigantic stage of the Dance House Helsinki.

The Flamenco Big Band concert brings together fiery flamenco with cool, swinging modern jazz. Perico Sambeat, one of Spain’s top jazz musicians, performs as saxophone soloist and conductor together with UMO and three top class flamenco musicians: the singer Alba Carmona and the cajónista David Domínguez from Spain, and a flamenco guitarist Joonas Widenius from Finland.

The UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra is known for breaking new ground, but never in the long history of the orchestra has it performed together with flamenco dancers. In this multi-sensory concert, UMO performs together with the Spanish top flamenco dancer José Manuel Álvarez and the flamenco group of the dance school ToeStar from Lohja. The choreographer is Kirsi Kannas, a dancer, teacher and pioneer of Finnish flamenco. Together, the immensely detailed footwork sections of the dancers, the dark and expressive flamenco singing and the traditional big band form a great rhythm machine, melting the last of the sleet of the Finnish April.

The album Flamenco Big Band from 2008 is Perico Sambeat’s most ambitious effort to combine flamenco elements from Andalusia with the musical language that is closest to his heart, American jazz. Beginning in the middle of the 1990s, Sambeat’s music has been influenced by flamenco and Flamenco Big Band is his first attempt to carry out this vision in the context of a large jazz orchestra. Along with music from the album, the concert programme also contains new music by Sambeat, composed for this performance.

Note! In the Erkko hall, the auditorium stand is a convertible telescope. Since the structure of the stand is not fixed, it may occasionally feel like the stand is swaying. The stand complies with all safety standards, and the feeling of swaying is the least in the lowest rows.

Open event

Open event