Jaska Lukkarinen Trio

With a master’s degree in jazz music and over 100 recording projects under his belt, Jaska Lukkarinen (b. 1982) wants to find out as a graduate student at Sibelius Academy how drummers “maintain and release musical energy in jazz” – the mythical swing of jazz.  

Lukkarinen released his fourth album One For Joe last year and dedicated it to the master percussionist Philly Joe Jones. The album was the first part of his artistic doctoral degree with the working title “Jazz Drummer’s Role as Communicative Ensemble Musician”, which is slowly coming together alongside his playing career. It was recorded by a quartet formed for a graduation concert, and all its tracks were hand-picked from over 60-year-old compositions.

At Jazz Happening, Lukkarinen will communicate with his long-time trio and through fresh songs created for his second postgraduate concert called Textures. All of them were composed by Mikko Hassinen, a colleague of his with a wealth of musical experience and best known as a jazz drummer.  

“As a composer, Mikko doesn’t define my playing style but rather tries to lay the foundation for improvisational and textural arranging. In my mind, this cooperation is a new innovative way to conduct jazz research and an opportunity to create new Finnish jazz music.” 

Playing fresh compositions of others is not that unusual for Jaska Lukkarinen Trio. Their third and most recent album Origami (2017) was compiled from the songs of Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen, a guitarist, composer, arranger and long-term employer of Lukkarinen.  

The trio’s fourth album made up of Hassinen’s compositions compositions has already been recorded but won’t be released until 2025. It marks the 20th anniversary of playing together for Lukkarinen, tenor saxophonist Jussi Kannaste and double bassist Antti Lötjönen.

Instead of periodic and short-term projects, Lukkarinen values long-term partnerships, as they offer the best platform to develop and deepen your musical expression. “As you get older, you come to realise that music is also about personal chemistry, a more holistic experience.”

Mikko Hassinen, who composed Jaska Lukkarinen Trio’s new repertoire, will perform at Telakka on Saturday at 22.30 with his own group Future Food Factory.