Born: September 23, 1964 Primary Instrument: Saxophone
Last Updated: May 31, 2013He certainly maintains a very individual and always interesting sound.” - John Henry-Audiophile Audition - March 2002 ”Pekka Pylkkänen is back with another notable collection of razor sharp contemporary jazz.. Pylkkänen, once again, blows through his variety of winds on this collection of mostly his originals.” - C.Michael Bailey - www. allaboutjazz.com ” Kein Wayne Shorter, kein Jaco Pastorius, kein Joe Zavinul spielen hier ausgelassen (und glucklicherweise auch keine, die sich dafur halten), hier musiziert eine ferfekt harmonierende Band, die ein wenig nordische Schwermut in die Kompositionen bringt, ohne diese damit völlig zu uberfrachten: Besonders hervorzuheben sind das virtuos- gewitzte ”Tom Cat”, das hypnotische ”The Picture Of Dorian Gray” und das hinreissend melancolische ”Black Pearl” - der Schallplattenman Sagt, 3.12.2001 ”. Pekka send me a copy of his latest recording, and what I hear is a mature player who has truly come up with a compelling sound, both as a composer and instrumentalist. The music on this cd is simply great, and I am very happy to see and hear that Pekka has grown into the musician that he is today. He’s created compositions with an elegant complexity that showcases his saxophone playing in a unique and personal way. “ Excerpt from liner notes by Bob Mintzer, December 2008
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Primary Instrument:
Saxophone
Location:
Helsinki
Credentials/Background:
As an educator Pekka has worked 7 years as a principal lecturer at the Stadia
Helsinki Polytechnic, Pop and Jazz Music Department. Before that, and also while
teaching at the Stadia, he has worked as a clinician at Ingesunds Music College
in Sweden, EMU Education Musical, Escuela De Musica Contemporanea and
Collegium CEIM (all 3 in Argentina), Jazz Peru in Lima, Peru, Shanghai
Conservatory, MIDI School Of Music and Contemporary Music Institute, Institute
for Performing Arts (all 4 in China), PAN School of Music (Tokyo, Japan) among
others. He has also taken part and worked as a teacher on IASJ Jazz Meetings on
2002 in Helsinki and on 2007 in Siena, Italy, as well as performed at the IAJE
Conference in New yYork. He is a member of IAJE and ISIM.
Clinic/Workshop Information:
1) A CLINIC/CONCERT (length about 2- 3 hours)
On this clinic I would perform with my group for about 45 minutes- 1 hour.
After the concert I would present some of the compositions we played, how I
wrote those tunes, some topics over those tunes and finally how did we
approach improvising on those tunes. Students would be welcomed to ask
questions as well.
2) JAZZ WORKSHOP (with my group) (length about 3 hours OR 2 times 3 hour
sessions)
1) Jazz Improvisation:
How to develop your harmony, your lines and your time.
2) Group Playing:
How to create a "band sound"- how to communicate musically
3) Repertoire:
Learning Standards- how, which tunes and why
In case this would be for the same group of people, I would most likely like to
combine these things. But they could be taught separately as well.
I would be using mostly basic jazz material, blues, rhythm changes,
standards etc. and concentrate first on, for example: keeping time, basic
harmonic movement, eigth-note lines, rhythmic expression, etc.
For the rhythm section I would bring exercises for comping (comping a horn
soloist,comping a bass soloist etc.). Also I would work on the interaction
between the drums and the piano and so on.
Some of my favorite things in working with a student group would include
concrete working on the group playing with some exercises I have developed
and some exercises I have learned from some very well- known jazz
educators.
3) INDIVIDUAL CLINICS AND MASTER CLASSES:
A CLINIC 'ON TRANSCRIBING'- HOW TO DO TRANSCRIPTIONS, HOW TO
PRACTISE THEM, HOW TO ANALYSE, HOW TO USE THE MATERIAL FROM
TRANSCRIPTIONS
A CLINIC ON COMPOSITION: HOW TO USE DIFFERENT MATERIALS, HOW TO
DEVELOP YOUR IDEAS, HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT CHARACTERS FOR A TUNE
AND GET ‘A SOUND’ OR ‘COLOR’ ON A TUNE.
A SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS: ON THIS MASTER CLASS I WOULD
CONCENTRATE ON SAXOPHONE TONE PRODUCTION, INTONATION,
PRACTISING ROUTINES AND DEVELOPING A PERSONAL SAXOPHONE SOUND.
A JAZZ MASTER CLASS ON IMPROVISING: ON THIS MASTER CLASS I WOULD
BRING SOME JAZZ CLASSICS TO WORK ON, I WOULD PLAY WITH A STUDENT
GROUP, WE WOULD BE LISTENING TO THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS AND
TALKING ABOUT DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLAY THOSE TUNES AND HOW TO
PRACTISE THEM INDIVIDUALLY. WE WOULD ALSO REHEARSE A FULL SET OF
MATERIAL FOR A CONCERT, AND IF THERE IS ENOUGH TIME ( a few days) WE
WOULD PLAY A CONCERT WITH THAT MATERIAL.
