Helmi Antila Quartet (FI)

In addition to the 58-year-old Yrjö Award, the Finnish Jazz Federation now also has the new Taimi Award, which “is awarded to a young musician who passionately develops their own musical expression”. Last November, the Taimi Award was given to music student Helmi Antila (b. 2000) at the Tampere Jazz Happening. Antila is a singer and songwriter, violinist and pianist. The justification for granting the Taimi Award to the Helsinki-based artist were read out at Tullikamarin Pakkahuone: “Helmi’s powerful, uniquely personal voice and her ambitious approach create the impression of someone who does not follow well-trodden paths, but boldly blazes her own trail”.

Unless you have already heard Helmi Antila’s quartet at another venue, you can now see for yourself whether this is indeed the case. Or perhaps you have already listened to Antila’s exceptionally promising debut album Kuvia nuoruudesta [Images of Youth], which was released last spring. All of its jazz vocal compositions and lyrics are her own and, to some extent, extremely personal, even drawn from the diary she kept in upper secondary school.

Raised in the small town of Kankaanpää, Antila has studied violin at the Sibelius Academy since 2019 and is now deepening her knowledge and skills in another department. In September, she began studying at the Department of Jazz, majoring in voice.