Mies Mauri Antero Numminen was born in Somero in Southwest Finland on 12 March 1940,[1] son of Paavo Numminen who was CEO of the progressive cooperative Osuusliike Oras, and Aira Aaltonen, who was head of a textile department. He was educated at the coeducational comprehensive school in Somero.[2][3]
Multiple roles and genres
In 1987
At the 2006 Down By The Laituri music festival in Turku
In the 1960s, Numminen was known particularly as an avantgarde, underground artist, stirring controversy with such songs as Nuoren aviomiehen on syytä muistaa ("What a young husband should remember"; the lyrics of the song were taken directly from a guide to newly married couples, and included advice on foreplay) and Naiseni kanssa eduskuntatalon puistossa ("With my woman at the parliament house's park").[citation needed] He was a member of the band Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940.[4] In his early days Numminen often successfully provoked people, for example with his interpretations of Franz Schubert's lieder, sung with his own idiosyncratically creaking voice,[5] or creating a scandal at the Jyväskylän kesä festival of Jyväskylä in 1966 with song lyrics taken from a sex guide.[citation needed] Numminen composed music to the writings of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.[5] In 1966, Numminen collaborated with Pekka Gronow to found the record label Eteenpäin! ("Forward!") to release Numminen's own music.[6]
Numminen has been one of the unsung pioneers of Finnish electronic music. He is known for his collaborations with composer and inventor Erkki Kurenniemi who built him a "singing machine" Numminen used to participate in a singing contest in 1964, and the electronic instrument Sähkökvartetti ("the Electric Quartet") in the late 1960s, the performance of which wreaked havoc in a youth festival in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Sähkökvartetti can be heard on Numminen's track 'Kaukana väijyy ystäviä' (1968).[7]
In 1970 Numminen founded the jazz band Uusrahvaanomainen Jatsiorkesteri ("the Neo-Vulgar Jazz Orchestra") with pianist Jani Uhlenius, taking its cues from the 1920s–1940s jazz, swing, foxtrot, etc. Past members of the band include Aaro Kurkela, Kalevi Viitamäki, Jari Lappalainen and Heikki "Häkä" Virtanen. As of 2020, the band's line-up consists of Numminen, Uhlenius, accordion player Pedro Hietanen and contrabassist Pekka Sarmanto.[8]
In the 2000s, Numminen made a return to electronic music and modern club sound. In 2003 Numminen started M.A.N. Scratch Band featuring his long-time collaborator Pedro Hietanen[9] with young jazz musicians Olavi Uusivirta, Lasse Lindgren and DJ Santeri Vuosara (also known as DJ Sane). The duo M.A. Numminen & DJ Sane was started in 2004.[10]
Numminen has appeared on Radio Suomi since 1984 together with playwright Juha Siltanen on their night show Yömyöhä.[11]
In 1986 he published a book called Baarien mies ("The Man of the Bars") on Finnish keskiolut lager culture, for which he visited over 100 bars around Finland. The book had a considerable role in the birth of 1980s keskiolut beer culture in Finland.[12]
Numminen as the rabbit Gommi, and Pedro Hietanen as the cat Pommi in the Vihreät Niityt music festival, Kiuruvesi, 2004
His records, starting with Suomen Talvisota 1939–1940's Underground-Rock in 1970, were published under the umbrella of the legendary Finnish label Love Records.[13] Numminen has recorded Swedish versions of many of his songs. He has also made several songs in English, German and Esperanto.
Numminen has taken part in many films, either as an actor, scriptwriter, composer, singer, or short film director.
Children's songs
In the 1970s, Numminen became a popular favourite with his children's songs[14] in the 1973 film Herra Huu – Jestapa Jepulis, Penikat Sipuliks, where he also played the main role, and in the 1977 TV series Jänikset maailmankartalle where he played a rabbit named Gommi, and his friend Pedro Hietanen played a cat named Pommi.[15][16] At the same time, Numminen also gained success in Sweden with his song 'Gummiboll' (Numminen's Finnish version of this was called 'Kumipallona luokses pompin ain', and is an interpretation of the song "Rubber Ball" by Bobby Vee).[15]
In 1989 Numminen released the vinyl album The Tractatus Suite, consisting of extracts from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus set to music, on the Forward! label (GN-95). The album was recorded at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki between February and June 1989. The "lyrics" (quotations from the Tractatus) were provided in German, English, Esperanto, French, Finnish and Swedish.[17] The music was reissued as a CD in 2003, M.A. Numminen sings Wittgenstein.[18] The songs include Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen (On what one cannot speak about, one must be silent), to the tune of a German marching song, accompanied by the Sohon Torwet brass band.[5][19]
Numminen's first wife was Sirpa Kuosa. They divorced,[2] and he married Helena Vapaa.[1]
Honours and distinctions
In 2005 the Aleksis Kiven Seura society gave Numminen the Esko Wood Award.[21]
In 2011, Åbo Akademi University conferred Numminen an honorary doctorate in political science for his bridge-building between art and science, and between Finland's Finnish and Swedish speakers.[22]
Numminen won the 2023 Juha Vainio Lyricist Award for his early influence on Finnish rock music.[2] In 2024 he was elected to the Finnish Music Hall of Fame.[2]
Discography
Original records
Numminen has recorded music in Finnish, Swedish, German and English as follows:
↑ "Eteenpäin! Vorwärts!Forward!Antauen! 1966-70 (6LP Box)". SoundOhm.com. Archived from the original on 14 March 2025. Retrieved 14 March 2025. The label was started in the spring of 1966 by ethnomusicologist and journalist Pekka Gronow and singer-artist M.A. Numminen. Numminen needed a channel for his creative work, and Gronow sought first hand experience for his thesis on the record industry.
↑ "ELIMISTÖ: DER PEENINKI ROOM: M.A. NUMMINEN VS. DJ SANE". Klubitus.org. 14 August 2005. Tamperelaisen dj-pioneerin tuotantoa voi myös kuulla mm. rap-duo Hannibalin ja Sopan tuoreella levyllä. M.A.NUMMINEN VS. DJ SANE -duo on keikkaillut syksystä 2004 asti.
↑ "Numminen ja Siltanen taas radioon". Yle Radio 1. Retrieved 14 March 2025. M.A.Nummisen ja Juha Siltasen legendaariset hämyiset Yömyöhä-ohjelmat eivät sittenkään ole täysin historiaa. Yle Radio1 on nimittäin poiminut tämän vanhan kunnon Radio Suomen ohjelmaan ajoittain kuuluneen helmen perjantai-iltansa piristäjäksi. (M.A. Numminen and Juha Siltanen's legendary late-night programs are not completely history after all. Yle Radio1 has picked up this gem that used to be part of the old Radio Suomen program from time to time to liven up its Friday evening.)
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