Jazz Finland Live

Tickets: €20 / €15 (regular price / KJB members & students)
Tickets available at the door from 18:00 onward.

At the KJB Association’s Jazz Finland 100 anniversary concert on Wednesday 27 May in the chamber hall of the Music Centre, audiences will hear Pekka Toivanen Quartet & Jenny Robson. The concert also celebrates jazz legend Pekka Toivanen’s 65th birthday. The event is organized in cooperation with Savonia University of Applied Sciences.

To mark the 100-year history of Finnish jazz, Pekka Toivanen Quartet and Jenny Robson present a program covering roughly a century of jazz in Finland. Although the arrival of the ship Andania in Finland is often cited as a milestone in the history of Finnish jazz, jazz had in fact already been played here before that event. However, the example set by Tommy Tuomikoski and Sylvester Ahola made an irreversible impact on Finnish musicians.

Pekka Toivanen has selected jazz compositions from different decades for the program, beginning with the folk tune Suomalainen rapsodia (“Finnish Rhapsody”), arranged and recorded by Yrjö Gunaropoulos in 1929. The program also includes Matti Rajula’s Mesikämmen from 1941 and Toivo Kärki’s Serenade from 1947. More recent Finnish compositions are represented by Åke Granholm’s Love All and Erik Lindström’s Pakaste from 1951. Closer to the present day are Olli Ahvenlahti’s A Day At The Zoo from 1976 (though that too is already nearly 50 years old!) and Aili Ikonen’s Nuori vapaa nainen (“Young Free Woman”) from 2017.

In 2026, Pekka Toivanen celebrates his 65th birthday at the same time as Finnish jazz turns approximately one hundred years old (depending on how one counts). The spirit of Andania nevertheless lives on. Toivanen has gathered around him favorite musicians from various collaborations.

On piano is Janne Maarala, whose uncompromising style leaves no doubt about where the music is heading. A lyrical expressiveness shines through all aspects of his musicianship.

The bass is played by Wade Mikkola, a close collaborator of Toivanen’s for many years. Their shared career includes recordings and performances released under both Toivanen’s and Mikkola’s names, depending on the occasion. On Pekka Toivanen’s debut album, released in 1988, the drums were played by Heikki Sandrén. With the Andania Blues project, the circle comes full circle.

Singer Jenny Robson performed with the Pekka Toivanen Quintet in the 2000s at festivals such as Pori Jazz and April Jazz. At that time, the program focused on the music of Cole Porter. Toivanen and Robson are colleagues at Savonia University of Applied Sciences, and now they perform together again after a long break.

Pekka Toivanen Quartet & Jenny Robson – Andania Blues

• Jenny Robson – vocals
• Pekka Toivanen – saxophone
• Janne Maarala – piano
• Wade Mikkola – double bass
• Heikki Sandrén – drums

Supported by: Savonia, City of Kuopio, MES

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}