Livestream from Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, without an audience. You can enjoy the music at the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra’s website, mobile app or at Helsinkikanava.fi. The stream concert is free, but you can buy a 5/10/15 € ticket at UMO’s channels to support the orchestra. The on-demand of the concert will be available at UMO channels right from Thursday evening, until further notice. At the Helsinkikanava.fi, the on-demand will be available on Friday 11th February from noon, until Thursday 24th February.

This live stream concert features compositions from the last period of Bob Brookmeyer’s long career, interpreted by the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and trumpeter Kalevi Louhivuori. The conductor is Ed Partyka, who worked closely with Brookmeyer for two decades.

Very few musicians have been world-class in one discipline, but Bob Brookmeyer (1929–2011) was a world-class player, composer, arranger, conductor and educator. He was an important sideman in some of the most innovative small and large jazz ensembles of the 20th century, and was and still continues to be an inspiration to generations of artists.

Bob Brookmeyer had an extremely long career in which his musical language, style and technic continued to develop and grow through the decades. The music written by Brookmeyer can be roughly divided into five periods based on his artistic and aesthetic evolution from the 1950’s until his death in 2011. All the music created during these different periods is of the highest quality and was extremely innovative but sounds completely different to music written by Brookmeyer a decade earlier or later. Other exceptional artists that share this breadth of creative achievement are Picasso, Stravinsky and of course Miles Davis. One other similarity to Miles was that Bob “collected” young musicians to work with and inspire him.

– The music that makes up our program in this live stream concert was all written in the last period of Bob’s life, while he was at the peak of his creative powers and had for the first time in his career his own jazz orchestra to perform his music the way he envisioned. The Bob Brookmeyer New Art Orchestra was a group of young musicians that Bob “collected” and formed into one of the most formidable large jazz ensembles of the modern era.
I was extremely lucky to be one of these young musicians. Bob inspired me to write music for big band and he a later became my teacher, mentor, boss, and the father I never had. The 18 years that I studied and worked with Bob were some of the most important years in my development as a musician. I am thrilled to be able to perform this music that is so dear to my heart with another one of the most formidable large jazz ensembles of the modern era, the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, describes Ed Partyka.

The soloist of the concert is a virtuoso trumpeter and composer Kalevi “Aceman” Louhivuori (b. 1984), who has won many international ensemble and solo competitions. Louhivuori has been an important presence on the folk-jazz artist Yona’s recordings. Louhivuori has also composed and arranged music for symphony orchestras, UMO, Jyväskylä Big Band, as well as games, films and numerous different artists. In addition to his own bands such as The Northern Governors, Louhivuori plays in e.g. Ricky-Tick Big Band, Lionel Beuvens Quartet and Serena Spedicato & Nicola Andrioli in The Shining of Things. Italian record label Cam Jazz has released nine of his records. Louhivuori’s company CareUs manufactures e.g. new types of wearable controls and instruments, such as the KAiKU music glove.

Duration about 1 hour.

Photo: Olli Sulin