Juhani Aaltonen
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Juhani Aaltonen (born December 12, 1935)[1] is a Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist.[2]
Born in Kouvola, Finland, he studied at Sibelius Academy and Berklee College of Music.[3] He began playing professionally at the end of the 1950s. He played in a sextet led by during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music.[1] 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 , and worked with the , Arild Andersen, and Peter Brötzmann later in the 1970s.[2] The 1980s saw him working with the , 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, and . 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.
Discography[]
- Etiquette, 1974
- Strings, 1976, with Henrik Otto Donner
- Springbird, 1979
- Prana. Live at Groovy, 1982
- Déjà Vu, 2000, with Art Farmer, Heikki Sarmanto, Pekka Sarmanto, and
- Rise, 2001, with Heikki Sarmanto
- Mother Tongue, 2003, with with
- Strings Revisited, 2003, with Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille and the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra
- Suhka, 2003, with , , Verneri Pohjola, , , Jarmo Savolainen, , , Ulf Krokfors, Tom Nekljudow, and
- Reflections, 2004, with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille
- Wonders Never Cease, 2005, with Mikko Iivanainen and
- Illusion of a Ballad, 2006, with Ulf Krokfors and Tom Nekljudow
- The Sky is Ruby,2007, UMO Jazz Orchestra with Raoul Björkenheim and Iro Haarla
- Conclusions, 2009, with Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors, and Reino Laine
As sideman[]
With Arild Andersen
- Shimri (ECM, 1976)
- Green Shading into Blue (ECM, 1978)
With Graham Collier
- Hoarded Dreams (Cuneiform, 1983 [2007])
With Edward Vesala
See also[]
- Finnish jazz musicians
- Music of Finland
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gronow, Pekka. "Aaltonen, Juhani". New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Oxford Music Online.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Cook, Richard (2005). Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia. London: Penguin Books. p. 1. ISBN 0-141-00646-3.
- ^ Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (2007). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 3. ISBN 9780195320008. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
External links[]
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- Finnish jazz musicians
- Jazz saxophonists
- Jazz flautists
- 1935 births
- Living people
- People from Kouvola
- Finnish jazz composers
- Berklee College of Music alumni
- Finnish flautists
- 21st-century saxophonists
- Finnish expatriates in the United States
- Sibelius Academy alumni