Biography
Finnish saxophonist and composer Mikko Innanen ranks among the notable improvisers who surfaced on Scandinavia's avant-garde jazz circuit toward the close of the 1990s. His output illustrates the enduring and widespread reach of alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman's impact on avant-garde jazz; although born in Lapinjärvi, Finland in 1978—nineteen years after Coleman captured the groundbreaking The Shape of Jazz to Come alongside Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins—Innanen absorbed Coleman's innovations deeply as both composer and soloist, an affinity evident on alto, soprano, and baritone sax alike. Additional formative figures range from Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, and Jan Garbarek to members of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians such as Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell.
While Innanen's improvisations and compositions often lean cerebral and abstract, they retain an unmistakable blues foundation essential to jazz expression and avoid the overtly confrontational or abrasive stance sometimes associated with the avant-garde. His free-jazz approach diverges from the fiery manner of a player like Charles Gayle, and his response to Coltrane's example favors the saxophonist's introspective, shadowed qualities over the searing, intensely dissonant atonality of Trane's final years. From the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians he absorbed an ability to regulate intensity during excursions outside conventional structures.
Following his upbringing in Finland, Innanen pursued jazz studies both domestically and in Denmark, attending the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen during his early twenties before returning home to complete coursework at the Sibelius Academy, from which he graduated in 2003. The same span covering the late 1990s and early 2000s also encompassed extensive performances across Western Europe, during which he collaborated with several Finnish ensembles—Gourmet, Delirium, Mr. Fonebone, and Nuijamiehet—as well as the French group Triade.
Innanen remains most closely identified with Triot, the pianoless trio completed by Danish musicians Nicolai Munch-Hansen on acoustic bass and Stefan Pasborg on drums. He first encountered Munch-Hansen and Pasborg while residing in Copenhagen in 1998; the group's inaugural performance took place in 1999, and Innanen continued appearing with the ensemble intermittently through the mid-2000s. Triot—its name formed by merging “trio” and “riot”—features him prominently on the live recording Sudden Happiness, captured in Denmark in 2002 and issued by the Helsinki-based Finnish imprint TUM Records in late 2004. Veteran reedman John Tchicai appears as guest soloist on seven of the nine tracks, each either composed or co-composed by Innanen.
While Innanen's improvisations and compositions often lean cerebral and abstract, they retain an unmistakable blues foundation essential to jazz expression and avoid the overtly confrontational or abrasive stance sometimes associated with the avant-garde. His free-jazz approach diverges from the fiery manner of a player like Charles Gayle, and his response to Coltrane's example favors the saxophonist's introspective, shadowed qualities over the searing, intensely dissonant atonality of Trane's final years. From the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians he absorbed an ability to regulate intensity during excursions outside conventional structures.
Following his upbringing in Finland, Innanen pursued jazz studies both domestically and in Denmark, attending the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen during his early twenties before returning home to complete coursework at the Sibelius Academy, from which he graduated in 2003. The same span covering the late 1990s and early 2000s also encompassed extensive performances across Western Europe, during which he collaborated with several Finnish ensembles—Gourmet, Delirium, Mr. Fonebone, and Nuijamiehet—as well as the French group Triade.
Innanen remains most closely identified with Triot, the pianoless trio completed by Danish musicians Nicolai Munch-Hansen on acoustic bass and Stefan Pasborg on drums. He first encountered Munch-Hansen and Pasborg while residing in Copenhagen in 1998; the group's inaugural performance took place in 1999, and Innanen continued appearing with the ensemble intermittently through the mid-2000s. Triot—its name formed by merging “trio” and “riot”—features him prominently on the live recording Sudden Happiness, captured in Denmark in 2002 and issued by the Helsinki-based Finnish imprint TUM Records in late 2004. Veteran reedman John Tchicai appears as guest soloist on seven of the nine tracks, each either composed or co-composed by Innanen.
Albums
Singles
