Kari Jalkanen - Niskavuoren Nuorimmainen

KARI JALKANEN

Tuuli kääntyköön / Niskavuoren nuorimmainen

RCA Victor FAS 051
1972
7"






Kari Tapio (born Kari Jalkanen) is one of the most famous schlager singers in Finland. He started his career attending Danny's tours and acting as a keeper for the snake used in the shows. This first single was released under his real name Kari Jalkanen, but shortly after he took the artist name Kari Tapio. Despite the slightly unfunky singing on the funk song Niskavuoren Nuorimmainen, this 45 is one of the most sought after funky records from Finland among the Finnish groovy music enthusiasts. The song itself is pretty strict rip from Quincy Jones' hit Hicky burr with Jukka Virtanen's lyrics about the fictional Niskavuori family (propably related to the famous Finnish drama series). They've even wrote a "thanks also to Quincy Jones" on label, but no writing credits. The song is arranged by Esko Linnavalli and backed by his band. The a-side song Tuuli kääntyköön is quite non-interesting schlager song.


Niskavuoren nuorimmainen

Vesa-Matti Loiri - 4+20

VESA-MATTI LOIRI

4+20

Finnlevy SFLP 9513
1971
LP






4+20 is the first album of Finnish well know actor, comedian and musician Vesa-Matti Loiri. Best known for his lead role in countless Uuno Turhapuro movies, he is also a professional flautist. The album is mostly flute-driven jazzfunk and free jazz, but there's also elements from folk songs on some songs. Vesa-Matti Loiri's musical career headed more and more into singing after this album. Due to a quite small pressing and poor distribution, this album is really hard to find nowadays. The best songs on this album are 3 different takes of the title track 4+20, uptempo groover Turkish coffee, latin influenced Carnavalito & El condor pasa, heavy vocal track Itkevä huilu (weeping flute in English) and of course the uptempo jazzfunk monster coming home baby. There's pretty impressive list of famous Finnish musicians on this album too. Pekka Sarmanto on bass and drums, Esko Rosnell on drums, Hasse Walli on guitar, eero Koivistoinen and Esa Pethman on saxophones, Tuomo Tanska on Organ and of course Vesa-Matti Loiri himself on flute, recorder and percussion among other musicians. Highly recommended album. If there's any chance, pick it up with no hesitation. Album was reissued in 2011.


Turkish Coffee


Carnavalito & El condor pasa


Coming home baby


Itkevä huilu


4+20 (1. session)

Eero Koivistoinen - Valtakunta

EERO KOIVISTOINEN

Valtakunta

Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava OTALP 66
1968
LP






Valtakunta LP from 1968 was a pretty ambitious album by Finnish jazz scene maestro Eero Koivistoinen, who is best known for his work with psychedelic rock/blues band Blues Section among his own jazz albums such as For Children, Original Sin, Wahoo! and many others. Valtakunta was his first solo project and it's a mixture of psychedelic rock, jazz and ballads. It was even published not by any record label, but by a Finnish book publishing company Otava. The musicians in this album are familiar from other projects such as Blues Section, Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940, Wigwam and so on. With Ronnie Österberg on drums, Pekka Sarmanto on bass, Juhani Aaltonen, Paroni Paakkunainen and Eero Koivistoinen on saxophone, Hasse Walli on electric guitar Antero Jakoila on sitar among others, the line-up is top notch. Vocals are sung by well known singers of that time; Eero Raittinen, Seija Simola, Vesa-Matti Loiri and also Eero Koivistoinen himself. Lyrics on this album are written by poets Pentti Saarikoski, Tuomas Anhava, Jarkko Laine and Hannu Mäkelä. Valtakunta is a pretty weird album with really psychedelic and a little messed up feeling. Unfortunately the album is really rare these days, and even the cd reissue from 1995 is really hard to find.


Lennosta kii


Pientä peliä urbaanissa limousinessa


Kello kuusi