Review: Sininen viikonloppu
The birth of the song evening
Six years ago, Jonna Järnefelt and Jukka Leppilampi performed the Gershwin classic I’ve got a crush on you at a mutual acquaintance’s wedding. The first meeting left such a warm memory that the collaboration continued in front of UMO in a concert dedicated to Frank Sinatra.
The next time music came up was when Jonna agreed to hold a singing evening at the Art Goes Kapakka festival in the autumn of 1998. Jonna asked Jukka for new songs for her performance, and Jukka contacted his lyricist friend Heimo Hatakka.
Hatakka was delighted with the offer of cooperation, as she had stories in mind that lacked a suitable performer.
“I had in mind a charismatic singer in everyday life. I didn’t know Jonna before, but I had seen her sometime in the mid-1990s, when she headed to the local store with her firstborn in a stroller. I was sitting in a bar on the other side of the street, and I sensed something mundane and unpretentious in the figure of Jonna. That sight came back to me when Jukka contacted me,” Hatakka recalls.
Songs were born, and a few were even found in the desk drawer. After the Art Goes Kapakka gig, the spark remained smoldering: random meetings, new songs, visits to home studios, record company explorations, more children, low flight, life.
As time passed, the songs forgotten in the rehearsal rooms and home studios began to remind me of themselves. The distance and forgetfulness had been good for the interpretations.
“I feel calm with the songs. I know what I’m singing about,” Jonna said in March 2002.
In a performance situation, the calmness is underlined by the acoustic nature of the music, which brings the stories and tones of voice to the forefront. The music looks you straight in the eye. According to listener feedback, music hits the skin and sets mental images in motion.
The texts deal with the basics: self-realization and self-loss, love and longing, freedom and chains, burdens and desires.
— Jukka’s song ideas often create an imaginary scene in my head, which I try to put into words. For example, the song Október loppusoitto, from the lyrics of which the name of the concert Blue Weekend is borrowed, is just such a creation. The melody of Jukka’s home demo exuded a melancholy sound, and I saw in my mind a guy who looked out of the living room until October and summed up his life, Hatakka describes.
Musically, the concert does not bow to styles and tight arrangements, but the songs and atmosphere take you where they are meant to take you. Maybe the music could be defined as free pop. Or Norah Jones’ Finnish cousin.
The Blue Weekend concert includes about fifteen songs and lasts for an hour and a half.
Finally, a brief summary of who is who:
Jonna Järnefelt (vocals)
Born 1964. Theatre Academy 1983–1988, attached to Lilla Teatern 1988–2003 (on leave of absence 1999–2003). Visits: Helsinki City Theatre, Viirus and Raivoisat Ruusut. Film and TV work. Musical theatre and singing evenings.
Jukka Leppilampi (compositions, guitar, vocals)
Born 1954. Full-time musician since the early 1970s. Tabula Rasa, own ensembles, solo performances and albums. pioneers of Finnish gospel. TV and film music and voice poetry performances.
Sami Koskela (percussion)
Born 1974. Educated at the Sibelius Academy. Freelance musician since 1996: classical (Avanti!, FRSO, Tapiola Sinfonietta), jazz (Baron Paakkunainen & Saxperiment, UMO), ethno, film and theatre music, gospel, etc.
Heimo Hatakka (lyrics)
Born 1965. Journalist since 1991, currently Managing Editor of Markkinointi&Mainonta magazine. A jack-of-all-trades: book projects, lyrics, newspaper articles and slogans.