Hamid Drake, Kalle Kalima & Conny Bauer (US, FI, DE)

The Berlin-based Finnish guitarist and composer Kalle Kalima (b. 1973) is, in his opinion, primarily an ensemble musician, i.e. “the glue that bonds and holds the group together”. This has been proven on several Finnish tours as well as at the Tampere Jazz Happening, where he has performed with his groups K-18, Tenors of Kalma and the post-rock Kuu! quartet, which has two electric guitarists. But Kalima, who has recorded some thirty of his own albums, did not perform as a soloist on them, either, even though he may have been tempted to.

In recent years, however, Kalima has pared down the size of his ensembles, making his five latest albums in various duos. He has partnered up with percussionist Tatu Rönkkö, double bassist Antti Lötjönen, singer Andreas Schaerer and pianist Achim Kaufmann, with the most recent and overwhelmingly oldest of his collaborators being trombonist Konrad “Conny” Bauer (b. 1943). Bauer is a multi-award winning pioneer in East German free jazz and improvised music, coming from a time when the wall divided Berlin, Germany and Europe.

Of course, the connection between Kalima and Bauer, who is precisely thirty years his senior, is more recent. They met in Berlin only four years ago at the birthday of another German trombonist and decided to meet again after the jam sessions. The first document of this joint musical development is 13 Months (2025), which was recorded in Berlin in November 2023 and released by German label TYXart in June 2025. Its tracks are titled only in Finnish for each calendar month, beginning with January.

But what about the thirteenth month? The answer to that question might be revealed on the first Saturday of November at Hotel Torni’s Paja Kongressi, where the duo will be joined by American drummer Hamid Drake (b. 1955). Drake has played with Bauer previously on a couple of occasions, but never with Kalima.

As a result, this is the first time that the trio will be performing together and the music they will play remains a mystery, even though the improvisations are based on the language Bauer and Kalima developed for 13 Months. However, one rule will indeed apply. According to Kalima, the aim is to keep the improvisations short enough that they will be able to play from January to the mysterious thirteenth month of the entire calendar year.