Tampere Jazz Happening begins today

The 44th international Tampere Jazz Happening will be held from 30 October to 2 November 2025. Immerse yourself in the current trends of jazz music at Paja Kongressi, Telakka and Tampere Hall with eight concert events and 21 performing ensembles.

The festival begins on Thursday with a film screening at Arthouse Cinema Niagara, with Mika Kaurismäki’s latest documentary film Every Note You Play (Germany 2025). Kaurismäki will be in attendance at the Finnish theatre premiere, after which he will be interviewed by journalist Harri Uusitorppa. On the same evening, the festival concert programme will kick off with Tahmela Six, whose album release performance will be free of charge at Telakka.

The Friday programme starts off with the Yrjö Award and other recognitions handed out by the Finnish Jazz Federation and Yle Jazz Radio, as well as a short performance by the winner of the Yrjö Award. The international concert offering will be opened by English guitarist Rob Luft, who was voted Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards gala held in October. The evening continues with performances by Daniel Erdmann‘s Organic Soulfood and two-time award-winner of the traditional DownBeat magazine Critics Poll, the Mary Halvorson Amaryllis Sextet.

Different generations of Finnish jazz will be gathering at Telakka. The evening will begin with Juhani “Junnu” Aaltonen, who turns 90 in December. Aaltonen will be immediately followed by the 65-year-younger Helmi Antila, who won the Taimi Award for young jazz talent at last year’s Happening. The evening programme will culminate with a performance by Iro Haarla, who started her career in the 1970s. Haarla will be accompanied by the Ouranos Ensemble, whose vocalist is Aija Puurtinen.

Saturday’s programme starts off with How Noisy Are The Rooms?, which consists of an Austrian jazz drummer, a classically-trained German vocalist and a Swiss noise-rock turntable artist. French ensemble Ukiyoto will definitely treat the Tampere audience to something entirely new, as this will be the first time the trio is performing in Finland. Not only that, the ensemble’s music has not yet been recorded for release. The day’s programme will close with James Brandon Lewis, who was named Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year in the DownBeat Critics Poll.

At the evening concert on Saturday, current names from both the Finnish and international jazz fronts will be on the bill. The young jazz generation is represented by the progeny of legendary Pharoah Sanders, saxophonist Tomoki Sanders. The album 13 Kuukautta (13 Months), which was released last summer by Kalle Kalima, a Finnish musician long active on the Berlin scene, and Germany’s Conny Bauer, was nominated at the beginning of October for Jazz Album of the Year (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award)). They will be joined by Hamid Drake, an American drummer who has performed with numerous ensembles at the Tampere Jazz Happening. This will be the trio’s world premiere. The evening will end with a Finnish jazz pioneer that got its start at the beginning of the millennium, The Five Corners Quintet, which is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its debut album.

Telakka’s evening programme will be opened by pianist and musical jack-of-all-trades Olli Ahvenlahti, who will be making his first appearance at the Tampere Jazz Happening. Last year, multi-instrumentalist Pauli Lyytinen’s solo work Lehto/Korpi was named Jazz Album of the Year. The evening will conclude with saxophonist Pepa Päivinen, whose Peacepipe ensemble has just released its new album, Vihmoo.

On Sunday, international concerts will be held in the Small Auditorium of Tampere Hall. Moroccan-Congolese-French trio Raulin-Bekkas-Biayenda blends jazz, North African spiritual gnawa music and Central African traditions in their music. French Émile Parisien will take the stage with his long-time quartet, and Swedish trumpetist Goran Kajfeš brings will be performing in Tampere with his hypnojazz ensemble Tropiques.

At the final concert of the festival, Lauri Kallio, who released his second record in the spring, will perform at Telakka, and Paleface, will keep the festive evening atmosphere rolling at his DJ gig. Admission to the concert is free of charge.