Juhani Aaltonen Trio (FI)

Juhani Aaltonen’s previous gig at Tampere Jazz Happening was an unexpected double tour de force by two accomplished tenor saxophonists, when his venerable trio was joined by another tireless veteran of free jazz, Joe McPhee of the United States, at a fully-packed Telakka.

Six years later, there is even more reason to celebrate at Telakka, as the eternally young Aaltonen will be celebrating his 90th birthday in December. However, his primary instrument is the flute – and nothing but. ‘Junnu’, as Aaltonen is also known, was ordered by his doctor to give up playing his tenor saxophone after suffering a serious case of COVID-19 in 2021. Quite simply, playing the sax would be too much for his lungs, which he has never treated with kid gloves.

The Juhani Aaltonen Trio, which performed for the first time in the summer of 2001, will also soon be celebrating its own 25th anniversary, with bassist Uffe Krokfors, who has been involved since the trio’s inception and Reiska Laine, who replaced drummer Tom Nekljudow along the way. However, forming a trio was never a given, as Aaltonen, who had experienced a spiritual awakening and almost gave up jazz altogether, doubted his own significance as is typical of him. “Young musicians were breaking through and our contributions no longer felt so relevant. It almost felt like my approach to jazz was no longer appreciated,” said Aaltonen, recalling his hesitation in the book Rytmihäiriöitä (2007).

Now, in retrospect, one can see how this simply wasn’t the case: one would be hard-pressed to find another Finnish jazz musician who is appreciated and respected as much as Aaltonen.