Jazz Finland Live

Tickets 20/15€

An irresistible fusion of jazz, Gnawa and Central African music. Three masters take the stage at Malmisali, combining their strengths by exploring shared cultural traits and playfully contrasting their differing backgrounds. In the hands of this brotherhood, the jazz piano dances in intricate patterns, hypnotic Gnawa trance enchants with its singing and guembri bass, and the polyrhythmic tradition of Congo unleashes an irresistible beat.

The Raulin – Bekkas – Biayenda trio was formed in 2018 at the esteemed Les détours de Babel festival in France and has since toured successfully throughout Central Europe and Morocco.

Pianist-composer Francois Raulin (born 1956) is a seasoned musician who played a role in the emergence of the new French jazz scene in the 1980s. Originally from the French Alps, Raulin became known for his collaboration with clarinet player Louis Sclavis, with whom he toured extensively around Europe. He is one of the founding members of La Forge, a musicians' collective based in Grenoble. Raulin has refined his ability to blend jazz and improvisation with folk music, without forgetting contemporary music influences, to create impactful interdisciplinary projects involving film, theatre and comics. Having performed on nearly every continent, the pianist has developed a deep connection with African music over the years.

Majid Bekkas (b. 1957) is a Moroccan guembrist. The guembri is a long-necked, three-stringed bass lute often used by North African Gnawa, descendants of slaves, in their spiritual music and ceremonies. Straddling tradition and modernity, Bekkas blends Gnawa music with Afro-American blues. He is also a teacher at the Rabat Conservatory and has been the artistic director of the Festival Jazz au Chellah in Rabat since 1996. This versatile artist received the Al Farabi Award, one of the most prestigious honours in Arabic culture, at the end of 2010. Bekkas made an impressive Finnish debut at the Tampere Jazz Happening in 2021 with the Magic Spirit Quartet, which besides him included Danish drummer Stefan Pasborg, Swedish keyboardist Jesper Nordenström and Swedish trumpeter Goran Kajfeš.

Born in Brazzaville, Congo, drummer, percussionist and composer Emile Biayenda founded a workshop in 1991 aimed at young Congolese in the neighbourhoods of Brazzaville, which gave rise to the famous band Les tambours de Brazza. He has adapted traditional ngoma drum rhythms and the heritage of the B'aaaka Pygmies into his distinctive playing style. He has toured worldwide and recorded with some of Africa's leading pop artists, such as Ray Lema and Rokia Traoré... Biayenda has lived in France since 1993 and has played with a wide variety of artists. He is as much at home in the African tradition as in European improvised music. He previously toured Finland with pianist Benoît Delbecq's trio in 2012 and 2018, and his collaboration with this acclaimed French pianist continues to flourish.

Concert production: Malmitalo
Tour production: Vapaat äänet, La Forge
The tour is supported by AJC, Spe

Swedish alto saxophonist Marcus Wärnheim and Finnish double bass player Jonathan Bäckström have been playing together as a duo since 2018. Through a long-lasting close collaborative process they are consequently pushing the limits of the intimate duo setting, exploring sound by embracing the spontaneous, pre-determined and arbitrary.

Jonathan Bäckström is a Finnish bassist, composer and improviser, currently based in Stockholm where he is finishing his master studies at the Royal College of Music. Over the past decade he has made his mark on the Northern European improvisation and jazz scene with his personal voice working in a variety of acoustic, electroacoustic and cross-disciplinary settings.

Marcus Wärnheim is a Swedish alto saxophonist and improviser, currently based in Amsterdam. His artistic output is primarily based in a genuine curiosity of sound, which he works with through intense listening and a thorough research of the physical possibilities of his instrument.  In recent years he has been preoccupied with acoustic solo performances, improvisational meetings, interpretation of other’s compositions as a sideman, as well as trans-disciplinary collaborations with dancers and circus artists.

Jonathan Bäckström: double bass
Marcus Wärnheim: alto saxophone

Photo: Sakari Puhakka

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden and The Finnish Music Foundation.

Open event