Juhani Aaltonen

"I feel that, both in my personal life and as a musician, I have often overcome the odds. Even some of the unlikeliest of my dreams and goals have come to pass, and music has always been the force to carry me through." And through the years that he has followed his calling Juhani Aaltonen has worked with all of the leading musicians in the burgeoning Nordic jazz scene from veteran Norwegians Jan Garbarek and Arild Andersen to the hottest of Finnish musical iconoclasts like Raoul Bj&#246rkenheim.

Aaltonen’s first public appearance was in1957 with a local band led by trumpeter Heikki Rosendahl and he began to work as a free-lance musician in 1961. Initially he also studied at the classical flute at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki but soon stopped to work as a full-time jazz musician. The Finnish jazz scene in the 1960s was even more limited than the Danish and Swedish, but as a consequence cooperation between musicians from these countries became more extensive over the decade. By the end of the decade Aaltonen performed regularly with the Nordic All Stars led by trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg and a constellation of prominent Nordic artists, including Garbarek, Bertil Lögren and Terje Rypdal.

However it was with three fellow Finnish musicians, trumpeter Henrik Otto Donner, pianist Heikki Sarmanto, drummer Edward Vesala that Aaltonen’s roots go deepest. More a composer than a trumpeter, Donner recognises that Aaltonen is his alter ego on the saxophone. Both men are of a more reflective disposition and, since their earliest cooperation in the nascent Finnish scene in Helsinki, both have been at home in the other’s orbit. The 2003 album of Donner’s compositions, Strings Revisited, shows that the two are still on the same wavelength. Pianist Heikki Sarmanto is an even closer associate of Aaltonen’s, with the two producing over 30 albums under shared credits or Sarmanto’s name over the 40 years of their cooperation. During the 1990s, they worked extensively together on a number of concert tours and recordings of extended works, such as an eight-part suite for flute called Pan Fantasy and a composition for flute and piano titled Silver Spell. During this time Aaltonen also found time to perform and record two discs of religious music on Footprint Records.

However Aaltonen became best known outside Finland for his cooperation with Edward Vesala that began as a duo in the mid-1960s and continued intensely for the next two decades. During that time, Aaltonen participated in a number of line-ups organized by Edward Vesala, reaching a high point with the larger ensembles of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and albums such as Nan Mandol with Tomasz Stanko, the pre-Sound and Fury discs like Lumi and Mao Mao. A particularly interesting album from this time is Prana, performed with Vesala and Coltrane’s bassist Reggie Workman, released in 1981. At the same time, Aaltonen was also one of the founding members of the very successful Finnish progressive/fusion rock group Tasavallan Presidentti, along with revered local guitarist Jukka Tolonen.

In the early 1970s, Aaltonen had studied briefly at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and continued to collaborate with former associates after his return to Finland. Aaltonen was also one of the founding members of UMO Jazz Orchestra in 1975 and continued as a regular member with the orchestra until 1986 when he left after receiving a 15-year artist�'s grant from the Finnish State. During the 1980s, there were collaborations also with pianist Jukka Linkola and vocalist Maija Hapuoja. As part of this collaboration, Aaltonen performed as a soloist in a number of larger orchestral works, including Henrik Otto Donner�'s orchestral suite The Spirit of the Valley, Jukka Linkola�'s Crossings and Heikki Sarmanto�'s Suomi Symphony.

However, free improvisation has always been the preferred area of music for Juhani Aaltonen, his “mother tongue” as he has admitted. Despite his closeness to powerful European saxophonists like Garbarek and Peter Brötzmann he has maintained his individual style and found space for this working with long-trusted colleagues. The Trio of the 1990s, with Vesala’s much younger associates Tom Nekljudow and Ulf Krokfors, gave space and opportunity for Aaltonen’s free inclinations, as well as two albums produced on the newly established TUM label in the new millennium.The establishment in 2007 of his Quartet sees Aaltonen continuing his association with Krokfors, as well as two other long-term associates. Iro Haarla was Edvard Vesala’s pianist and occasional harpist, close collaborator, if not arranger, as well has his wife. Reino Laine had worked with Aaltonen in the 1960s, as well as with fellow Finn, saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen, and later with bassist Pekka Pohjola. Laine worked with a variety of other Finnish artists, as well as with Dexter Gordon, Clifford Jordan and Ted Curson. The release of Conclusions in late 2009 saw Aaltonen producing something of a summation of his career, with pieces still strong and emotional, but also often more contemplative. Having worked almost continuously in his field with exceptional musicians for over 50 years, Aaltonen seems to have reached a level of acceptance and expertise both in his homeland as well as increasingly abroad.

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