Roope Kantonen is a jazz drummer, composer, and teacher awarded Jazzmuusikot ry’s Jazz Musician of the Year 2022. He graduated with a Master’s degree in jazz music from the Amsterdam Conservatory. Having moved from the Netherlands to Finland in 2021, Kantonen has played on twelve albums and performed with various ensembles not only in Finland but also elsewhere in Europe. He is a familiar face in the Helsinki jazz scene, notably hosting the jazz jams at Sörkan Ruusu.
Roope Kantonen 3 introduces a new voice in the Finnish jazz scene with their debut album, Introducing. The work takes listeners into an original world where freedom, sensitivity, subtlety, and strong dynamic interplay converge. The trio’s exceptional sound is based on the absence of a harmony instrument and the eccentric timbre of the bass clarinet. The trio draws influences from both traditional jazz as well as modern and experimental music. Introducing consists of original compositions by each member of the trio, ranging from profound, meditative moments to intense improvisation and rhythmic exuberance. The members of the ensemble are known for their high-level musical skills and their distinctive ways of playing and interpreting their instruments. The bass clarinet is played by Max Zenger, known from Kaisa’s Machinesta and UMO, while the double bass is played by Juuso Rinta, recognized from Héctor Lepe Quartet and Tuomo Uusitalo Trio.
For this concert, the ensemble has the special honor of hosting bass clarinetist, composer, and philosopher Joris Roelofs
Joris Roelofs began his clarinet studies at the age of six and added the saxophone to his repertoire when he was twelve. At the age of sixteen, he performed the clarinet theme in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as a soloist with Orkest van het Oosten. From 2003 to 2018, he served as the lead alto saxophonist in the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and spent five years as a musician in the Wienna Art Orchestra. Over the years, he has played with numerous jazz stars, including Brad Mehldau, Lionel Loueke, Jeff Ballard, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
After graduating with a Master’s degree from the Amsterdam Conservatory (2007), Joris moved to New York, where he recorded seven of his own albums, including his debut album, Introducing Joris Roelofs (2008). His latest release, Rope Dance: Light-Footed Music for All and None (2021), received five-star reviews in De Volkskrant and BBC Music Magazine.
As a composer, Joris has written music for a wide variety of ensembles, from solo bassoon to big bands and symphony orchestras. Currently, he works as the coordinator of the jazz clarinet department at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where in addition to instrument teaching, he lectures on the relationship between music and philosophy. Alongside his work as a teacher and musician, he is also writing a doctoral thesis on Nietzsche, improvisation, and the idea of freedom, and he is a member of an international Nietzsche research group in Stuttgart, Germany.
Photo: Teemu Kekkonen