Juhani Aaltonen
Encyclopedia
Juhani Aaltonen is a Finnish
jazz
saxophonist and flautist.
Born in Kouvola
, Finland, he began playing professionally at the end of the 1950s. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy
and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music
. Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki
and began working both as a session musician
and with fusion
groups. Later in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala
, as well as in the group Eero Koivistoinen
for four years. He played with Tasavallan Presidentti
in their earlier days, including for their first, eponymous, album. He recorded with Thad Jones
and Mel Lewis
and with Heikki Sarmanto
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his first album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974.
In 1975, he became a member of the New Music Orchestra, and worked with the Nordic All Stars, Arild Andersen
, and Peter Brötzmann
later in the 1970s. The 1980s saw him working with the UFO Big Band, Jan Garbarek
, Charlie Mariano
, and others. He was granted a 15-year state grant from Finland in the mid-1980s. In 1983 he rejoined Tasavallan Presidentti, and has recorded and toured with them since. He led a touring quartet from 1990 to 1992 with Olli Ahvenlahti, Heikki Virtanen and Reino Laine. Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto
released a duo recording, Rise, in 2001; in 2003 Aaltonen's trio album Mother Tongue won a Jazz-Emma in Finland. Aaltonen continues to teach at the annual Nilsiä
Music Camp.
With Edward Vesala
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
saxophonist and flautist.
Born in Kouvola
Kouvola
Kouvola is a town and municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located northeast of the capital, Helsinki.The city has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
, Finland, he began playing professionally at the end of the 1950s. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
and began working both as a session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
and with fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
groups. Later in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala
Edward Vesala
Edward Vesala , born Martti Vesala, was a Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer....
, as well as in the group Eero Koivistoinen
Eero Koivistoinen
Eero Koivistoinen is a Finnish jazz musician and saxophone player, who started his career in the mid-1960s. Koivistoinen has worked as a musician, composer, arranger, conductor, producer and educator. He first heard jazz from the records his sailor brother had brought in from his travels...
for four years. He played with Tasavallan Presidentti
Tasavallan Presidentti
Tasavallan Presidentti is a Finnish progressive rock band. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist Jukka Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen. Other founder members were Måns Groundstroem and Frank Robson , previously of Blues Section...
in their earlier days, including for their first, eponymous, album. He recorded with Thad Jones
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.-Biography:Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten . Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen...
and Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....
and with Heikki Sarmanto
Heikki Sarmanto
Heikki Veli Uolevi Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.Sarmanto started playing jazz in the 1960s. He studied first at the Sibelius Academy and later in Berklee College of Music in Boston...
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his first album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974.
In 1975, he became a member of the New Music Orchestra, and worked with the Nordic All Stars, Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player.Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet , with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen...
, and Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
later in the 1970s. The 1980s saw him working with the UFO Big Band, Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek
Jan Garbarek is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist, active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war Czesław Garbarek and a Norwegian farmer's daughter...
, Charlie Mariano
Charlie Mariano
Carmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....
, and others. He was granted a 15-year state grant from Finland in the mid-1980s. In 1983 he rejoined Tasavallan Presidentti, and has recorded and toured with them since. He led a touring quartet from 1990 to 1992 with Olli Ahvenlahti, Heikki Virtanen and Reino Laine. Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto
Heikki Sarmanto
Heikki Veli Uolevi Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.Sarmanto started playing jazz in the 1960s. He studied first at the Sibelius Academy and later in Berklee College of Music in Boston...
released a duo recording, Rise, in 2001; in 2003 Aaltonen's trio album Mother Tongue won a Jazz-Emma in Finland. Aaltonen continues to teach at the annual Nilsiä
Nilsiä
Nilsiä is a small town and a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The town has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is ....
Music Camp.
Discography
- Etiquette, 1974
- Strings, 1976, with Henrik Otto Donner
- Déjà Vu, 2000, with Art FarmerArt FarmerArthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...
, Heikki SarmantoHeikki SarmantoHeikki Veli Uolevi Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.Sarmanto started playing jazz in the 1960s. He studied first at the Sibelius Academy and later in Berklee College of Music in Boston...
, Pekka SarmantoPekka SarmantoPekka Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz bassist. Heikki Sarmanto is Pekka's brother.Pekka Sarmanto first studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy from 1958 to 1964 before he switched to upright bass...
, Jukka-Pekka Uotila and Tapio Aaltonen - Rise, 2001, with Heikki SarmantoHeikki SarmantoHeikki Veli Uolevi Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.Sarmanto started playing jazz in the 1960s. He studied first at the Sibelius Academy and later in Berklee College of Music in Boston...
- Mother Tongue, 2003, with Ulf Krokfors with Tom Nekljudow
- Strings Revisited, 2003, with Reggie WorkmanReggie WorkmanReginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
, Andrew CyrilleAndrew CyrilleAndrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra - Suhka, 2003, with Jone Takamäki, Tane Kannisto, Verneri Pohjola, Patrik Latvala, Seppo Kantonen, Jarmo SavolainenJarmo SavolainenJarmo Savolainen was a Finnish jazz pianist and composer. He was born in Iisalmi, Eastern Finland, and first studied classical piano...
, Pekka Nylund, Antti Hytti, Ulf Krokfors Tom Nekljudow and Stefan Paavola - Reflections, 2004, with Reggie WorkmanReggie WorkmanReginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
and Andrew CyrilleAndrew CyrilleAndrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St... - Wonders Never Cease, 2005, with Mikko Iivanainen and Klaus Suonsaari
- Illusion of a Ballad, 2006, with Ulf Krokfors and Tom Nekljudow
- The Sky is Ruby,2007, UMO Jazz Orchestra with Raoul BjorkenheimRaoul BjorkenheimRaoul Björkenheim is an American jazz guitarist. He was born to Finnish parents. His mother is actress/singer Taina Elg . He lived in the USA until he was 15 years old, when his family returned to Finland...
and Iro Haarla - Conclusions, 2009, with Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors and Reino Laine
As sideman
With Arild AndersenArild Andersen
Arild Andersen is a Norwegian bass player.Born in Lillestrøm, Norway, he started out as a member of the Jan Garbarek Quartet , with Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen...
- ShimriShimri (album)Shimri is the second album by Norwegian jazz bassist and composer Arild Andersen recorded in 1976 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1976) - Green Shading into BlueGreen Shading into BlueGreen Shading into Blue is the second album by Norwegian jazz bassist and composer Arild Andersen recorded in 1978 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1978)
With Edward Vesala
Edward Vesala
Edward Vesala , born Martti Vesala, was a Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer....
- Nan MadolNan Madol (album)Nan Madol is an album by Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer Edward Vesala originally released on the JAPO label in 1974 and re-released on the ECM label in 1976.-Reception:...
(JAPO, 1974) - SatuSatuSatu is an album by Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer Edward Vesala recorded in 1976 and released on the ECM label in 1977.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 2 stars.-Track listing:# "Satu" - 14:37...
(ECM, 1977)