Jukka Tolonen | |
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 Tolonen in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jukka Jorma Tolonen |
| Born | 16 April 1952 |
| Origin | Helsinki, Finland |
| Genres | Progressive rock, jazz, jazz fusion, blues, hymns |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1966–present |
Jukka Jorma Tolonen (born 16 April 1952) is a Finnish jazz guitarist. [1] Tolonen became famous as guitarist for the progressive rock band Tasavallan Presidentti [1] (which means "president of the republic").
He had grown up playing the piano, but received his first guitar at age eleven. From 1966 to 1967 Tolonen, at age fourteen, played guitar with Arto Sotavalta and the Rogues. Their first single, recorded in 1967, was "Ei maitoa tänään," backed by "Lady Jane." For several months in 1969 he was a member of Eero Raittinen's band Help, which eventually split up. Then Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen founded the group Tasavallan Presidentti, with whom he toured and recorded several albums from 1969 to 1974. Their third album, Lambertland, reached number seven on the Finnish charts in 1972, followed by Milky Way Moses, which peaked at number twelve in 1974. Tolonen also played on albums Tombstone Valentine (1970) and Fairyport (1971) by Wigwam.
His first solo album, Tolonen!, recorded and released in 1971 while he was nineteen years old, displayed his prowess on both guitar (electric and acoustic) and piano, and instrumental songwriting which comfortably segues between classical, jazz, folk, blues, and rock. [2] Tolonen! peaked at number six on the Finnish charts in 1971, winning the Finnish Broadcasting Company's Album of the Year disk. In 1972 he married Taija Sippola, his girlfriend of several years, and studied piano and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki while continuing to perform and record. Tolonen's guitar solo on "Paratiisi", a hit single from Rauli 'Badding' Somerjoki's 1974 album Näin käy rock & roll, made it the most played song on Finnish radio for three subsequent years. Tasavallan Presidentti broke up in 1974 just before it was to embark on a US tour in support of Kraftwerk. "Windermere Avenue", a song from Tolonen's 1975 Hysterica album, became a minor radio hit in the USA. Also in 1975 he was asked to join ABBA as a touring musician, but he declined, due to the birth of his first child, Dimitri, and his concurrent solo career.
Tolonen is a virtuoso guitarist, who is highly respected in his native Finland as well as in Sweden, where he has lived for long periods. [1] Among Tolonen's side projects are Guitarras Del Norte, Trio Tolonen, and Jukka Tolonen Band (JTB). He has used many different guitars over the years, such as the Gibson ES-335 and Ibanez Artist. Since the 1990s he has used Finnish handmade instruments by Ruokangas Guitars (electric) and Lottonen Guitars (acoustic).
Despite his earlier successes, Tolonen was eventually twice divorced, homeless, and drug-addicted. In May 2008 Tolonen was found guilty of stabbing his girlfriend and was sentenced to 27 months in jail for aggravated assault. [1] [3] When released in 2010, he told the media that he was quitting guitar playing due to osteoarthritis. [4] While in prison Tolonen dedicated his life to Jesus Christ, [1] [3] [4] and in 2011 he released Juudan Leijona ("Lion of Judah"), a CD of traditional Finnish hymns, in which he sings and plays piano, occasionally accompanied by other instruments and voices. He continues to perform live concerts of Christian music on piano along with other musicians and vocalists. [1]
On 2 May 2014 Gateway Films released Tolonen, a career-spanning documentary. A concurrent Tolonen CD was issued, featuring many young Finnish jazz and rock musicians' interpretations of Tolonen's songs. In autumn 2014 he played guitar for the first time in many years (and sang) on the album Sokea Joe by Kari Peitsamo. The same year he began to receive a State Arts Pension in Finland for meritorious activities of a creative or performing artist. Tolonen is actively involved with the Salem Pentecostal Church in Helsinki, and has enrolled in a local Bible Institute. In 2017 he began to perform on bass guitar in live concerts as part of the Ramblin' Jazz Quartet in Finland.
In December, 2019 Jukka Tolonen alternated between bass guitar and piano for two concerts in Helsinki celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tasavallan Presidentti along with several of his old bandmates and additional personnel.
The music of Finland can be roughly divided into folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music.
Jussi Pekka Pohjola was a Finnish multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer. Best known as a bass player, Pohjola was also a classically trained pianist and violinist.
Rauli Somerjoki, known professionally as "Badding", was a Finnish rock singer born in the town of Somero into a family of five children. His records were published on such labels as Love Records.
Finnish rock refers to rock music made in Finland. The initial rock and roll boom of the 1950s was preceded by a long tradition of popular culture. Suomirock may refer to Finnish rock music in general or more narrowly rock music sung in the Finnish language.
Jyrki Sakari Kukko, is a Finnish musician.
Wigwam was a Finnish progressive rock band formed in 1968.
Tasavallan Presidentti is a Finnish progressive rock band. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist Jukka Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen. Other founder members were Måns Groundstroem (bass) and Frank Robson (vocals), previously of Blues Section. Juhani Aaltonen (saxophone/flute) had earlier played in Soulset; he was replaced in 1970 by Pekka Pöyry. Eero Raittinen replaced Robson as a vocalist in 1972, the same year as the album Lambertland was released in UK. The album was a tight fusion of jazz and folk rock with highly inventive and imaginative lyrics which charted at the number 7 position in Finland. Milky Way Moses reached number 12 in Finland in 1974. The band toured in continental Europe and the United Kingdom in 1973 and 1974, but Pöyry, stricken with bouts of manic depression, was occasionally replaced with keyboardist Esa Kotilainen on live dates.
Blues Section are a Finnish rock music group. They started in 1967, formed around the vocalist Jim Pembroke, a British expatriate songwriter now living in Finland. The other members of the band were Eero Koivistoinen (saxophone), Ronnie Österberg (drums), Hasse Walli (guitar), and Måns Groundstroem (bass). Their influences came above all from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Jimi Hendrix, who had played a gig in Helsinki in May 1967. One can also hear in Pembroke's British-flavoured song-writing some echoes from The Beatles and The Kinks. Blues Section released a self-titled album late 1967 on Helsinki's Love Records. In 1968 Groundstroem and Pembroke left the band, being replaced by Pekka Sarmanto and Frank Robson, respectively. Also Koivistoinen would leave the band during the same year, and by the end of 1968 Blues Section was over. The Blues Section members would continue in such acclaimed progressive rock bands as Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti. Eero Koivistoinen was to become an internationally acclaimed jazz musician, and Hasse Walli would discover world music, playing in such bands as Piirpauke.
Love Records was a record label from Finland established in 1966 by Christian Schwindt. It specialized in Finnish rock and also released jazz, leftist political songs, and ethnic music.
Fairyport is a double LP by Wigwam, which was released in 1971.
Tombstone Valentine is a studio album released by Wigwam in 1970. While the previous album Hard 'n' Horny was more of a jazz influenced album, Tombstone Valentine in one of their more pop-ish albums. The album sounds more like the records of the "Deep Pop" era than the records of the progressive rock era.
Made in Sweden was a Swedish jazz-rock supergroup active from 1968 to 1977.
Juhani Aaltonen is a Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist.
Agents is a Finnish band formed in 1979, playing rautalanka, schlager and rock'n'roll music. The head figure and musical director of the band is solo guitarist Esa Pulliainen.
Hysterica is the fourth studio album by guitarist Jukka Tolonen, released in 1975 through Love Records; a remastered edition was reissued in 2004.
Pekka Juhani Pöyry was a Finnish jazz and rock saxophonist and flutist. He was part of the Pekka Pöyry Quartet and Quintet.
Piirpauke is a Finnish musical group combining free jazz, flamenco, mbalax, Arabesque, carnatic, romantic, modern, classical, humppa, impressionist, hindustani, salsa, Amharic, Lappjoik, Tibetan, Balkan, Karelian, Finnish, national romantic and rock music influences in their compositions.
Frank Robson is a rock musician of English extraction who has achieved fame in Finland. He is known as a singer and a piano and organ player. He first came to Finland in 1967.
Alexi Tuomarila is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.
Måns Ivar Åkesson "Måsse" Groundstroem [grʊndström] is a Finnish bass player, studio technician and music producer. He has recorded ca. 100 music albums and produced another 70 albums. Most of these albums were released by Love Records.
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