THIS CONCERT IS RESCHEDULED from Tuesday 17th March to Tuesday 27th October. The tickets remain valid for the new concert date! 

The arrangements for the concert are exceptional: tickets are sold for only 160 people, and the audience is seated in the Vuotalo’s auditorium for 320 people with safety intervals. Audience safety at concerts >>

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UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra will go back to the basics of big band music, limelighting the brilliance of Buddy Rich Big Band. The concert will see the Yrjö- and Emma-winning Markus Ketola sit behind the drumkit as the Buddy Rich of UMO Helsinki. Ketola has played the drums for the orchestra since 1993. Antti Rissanen who also has a long history in leading UMO Helsinki will take the conductor’s podium. Ready yourself for such classics as Straight No Chaser, Love For Sale and, the title number, Big Swing Face.

American Bernard “Buddy” Rich (1917–1987) has been considered the finest drummer in the world, acclaimed particularly for his virtuoso technique, whirlwind-like speed and snappy touch on the snare drum. According to a legend Rich only played when he was performing. Then again, if you take up your instrument at the age of 18 months – as he is told to have done – why would you waste time practising? Known as a worldly showman and a funny personality, Rich could also be an extremely critical and demanding musician and band leader who would not accept mediocrity. During his career he collaborated with virtually every superstar of jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra.

Rich led an eponymous big band and in its ranks in the early 1980s played the Finnish trumpeter Simo Salminen (1956–2014). At the time Salminen’s recruitment to the orchestra was a sensation, as he was the first Finn ever to get a permanent position in an orchestra of such standard in the United States, the motherland of jazz. For the couple of years that he belonged to the big band Salminen had an important role in it, ultimately becoming its lead trumpeter. He was also a significant presence in UMO Helsinki for twenty or so years.

Some customer feedback of our Buddy Rich concert in Savoy in September 2019:

“An excellent concert today. UMO is in good shape. Engaging program and arrangements. Conductor 10+. Thank you!”

“The best concert of all time, I think from all of UMO and Markus Ketola on the Buddy Rich theme. Conductor Rissanen’s performance, enthusiasm and chat made a wonderful package.”

“An absolutely wonderful experience, joy and good mood for many days! Big thanks to the whole orchestra! As an extra sugar, the overwhelming conductor Rissanen, who pulsed and lived with the whole soul.”

Photo: Buddy Rich, Heritage Image / Lehtikuva