Bringing a 9-piece transcultural ensemble to perform concerts and host master classes in South America in November 2025.
JUSSI REIJONEN: THREE SECONDS | KOLME TOISTA
Jussi Reijonen - fretted/fretless guitar, Arabic oud Jason Palmer - trumpet, flugelhorn Robin Eubanks - trombone Layth Sidiq - violin Naseem Alatrash - cello Maxim Lubarsky - piano Kyle Miles - bass Keita Ogawa - percussion Vancil Cooper - drums
Bringing together an all-star ensemble of US-based musicians from Finland, Jordan/Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Japan and the United States whose credits include performances/recordings with Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes, Simon Shaheen, Danilo Pérez, Terence Blanchard, Snarky Puppy and Yo-Yo Ma, composer, guitarist and oud player Jussi Reijonen’s nonet draws from the deep pool of influences and experiences of a childhood spent in the Middle East and East Africa as well as 13 years in the United States as an adult.
The dynamic interplay of the Finnish, Jordanian, Tanzanian, Omani, Lebanese and American cultures in which he grew up and lived, the ever-present feeling of being welcomed yet never truly belonging, the longing to understand his own identity within this complex and wondrous multicultural and multilingual context, and the disorienting effect of their transient existence on his familial relationships are expressed, explored and stunningly resolved in Reijonen’s transcendent compositions.
Described as “unlike anything in memory… creates a new, genre-less, form… spellbinding from beginning to end, and full of virtuoso performances… one of the best recordings of 2022” by AllAboutJazz and “a stunner… a unified, diverse, overwhelming statement” by JazzTimes, the nonet's album "Three Seconds | Kolme Toista" [Challenge Records International 2022] has been a major international critical success, receiving 5-star reviews and being selected as Best Creative Albums of 2022 by AllAboutJazz and Best Jazz Albums of 2022 by Glide Magazine.
Reijonen's nonet was chosen as a Jazzahead! 2023 official showcase artist in Bremen, Germany, and was a Western Arts Alliance Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) showcase artist in 2023-2024.
Reijonen is represented by Austria-based international booking agency Georg Leitner Productions GmbH, whose roster also includes artists such as Youssou N’Dour, Tomatito, Roy Ayers, Ruben Blades, Stanley Jordan, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan and Missy Elliott.
