he 37th annual Tampere Jazz Happening festival will be organized between 1st and 4th November, 2018. Altogether 25 ensembles and orchestras will perform during this year’s festival in 10 concert events.
The concerts at the Pakkahuone venue will feature some of the most fascinating international jazz musicians, including trumpeter Josef Leimberg, who in 2016 released his debut solo album Astral Progressions. Prior to that, Leimberg, among other things, worked as the producer for Snoop Dogg, as well as played on Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-awarded album, To Pimp A Butterfly. Other musicians hailing from the United States to this year’s festival include The Art Ensemble of Chicago – whose multi-instrumentalist players have been pioneering in African-American avant-garde jazz – Jamie Baum Septet+, as well as Hamid Drake together with Japanese drummer Yuko Oshima.
Furthermore, this year’s Tampere Jazz Happening’s highlights encompass Nordic jazz collaborations. Rymden, formed by Magnus Öström, Dan Berglund, and Bugge Wesseltoft, is a brand new super collective of established Scandinavian jazz musicians. The debut album of this ensemble will be released in the beginning of 2019. Furthermore, Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim will bring his new compositions to Pakkahuone, an entity of works titled Helsinki Songs. The line-up also includes The Net of Indra, lead by drummer-composer Olavi Louhivuori and featuring the distinguished Nordic musicians Juhani Aaltonen, Palle Danielsson, and Eivind Lønning.
Following the tradition of the previous years, this year’s festival programme at Telakka will focus on the Finnish jazz scene. Saxophonist Max Zenger is a rising Finnish jazz star, arriving to Tampere with his new quartet, Maxxxtet. In addition, the Telakka stage will include performances by Mopo, who performed at many music events during this summer, enchanting listeners also outside of the jazz spheres. Mopo’s concert at the Tampere Jazz Happening will be joined by saxophonist Mikko Innanen. The audiences will also be treated to a performance by Halme Prospekt, whose musical expression will be complemented by the virtuosic Pekko Käppi, a master player of the Finnish traditional bowed lyre, jouhikko.
Late night concerts at Klubi will captivate the festival-goers with danceable grooves and rhythms. On Friday night, the Klubi stage will be lit by the musical explosion of Ghost-Note – an orchestra that is pushing funk music to the future and includes musicians Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth from the multi-Grammy Award-winning Snarky Puppy, as well as bassist MonoNeon, who also played with Prince. This orchestra’s musical expression is an uplifting and contagious combination of jazz, hip hop, funk, and world music. On Saturday, the legendary Timo Lassy & Ricky-Tick Big Band Brass will be in charge of providing the audiences with solid grooves and tunes.
Tampere Jazz Happening 2018 will provide two concert events completely free-of-charge for audiences. The first one is the opening night’s Spotlight on Austria event, including performances by Mario Rom’s Interzone, Kompost3, and Elektro Guzzi. The second one is the final concert of this year’s festival, featuring Emma Salokoski & Ilmiliekki Quartet, who will arrive to Tampere with their brand new compositions.
