Jimi Tenor in Moscow

Changing his unpronounceable name Lassi Lehto in his early youth to the more polished and memorable name Jimi Tenor, he paid tribute to his youthful idol - the pop star of the 70s, Jimmy Osmond, and his favorite instrument, the tenor saxophone, to which he devoted 12 years of study in music school. In the early 90s, Tenor experimented with machine-like sounds, assembling the radical group The Shamans. Existing for just over 3 years, Jimi turns the page in his biography, disbanding the group and embarking on new adventures in New York. New York and its urban atmosphere have a decisive influence on the future star. In his free time (Jimi was engaged in taking photos of distracted tourists at the Empire State Building observation deck), he pieces together his first album Sahkomies, which is shrouded in the haze of free jazz forms and seasoned with a cover of a cosmic track by free jazz veteran Sun Ra. One of the tracks from this masterpiece, Take Me Baby, will still bloom and become a hit in many countries.
A significant turning point in the Finnish musician’s career was the meeting with one of the founders of Warp records, Steve Beckett, who caught the musician during a concert playing one-handed on the electronic organ while attempting to stuff a gigantic hamburger in his mouth with the other hand. It’s needless to say how impressed the boss of the famous label was, and that a contract was immediately signed. In 1997, Warp released Intervision, probably Jimi Tenor's most well-known and best-selling record to this day, which made a breakthrough not only in the artist's career but also largely defined the new look of Warp. In an instant, the artist was bombarded with numerous interviews, shoots for MTV music videos, photographs for fashion magazines by the trendiest photographers of the time, and of course, months-long tours from America to New Zealand, from Ireland to Japan. A year later, the man with a mop of unnaturally white hair, reminiscent of Andy Warhol, becomes an icon.
What kind of music is this? It has a lot of atmosphere and relaxation, it’s filled with jazz, yet at the same time, it’s full of electronics. This is music for stylish leisure. "Intervision" combines modern urban moods with the 80s New York swing, stylings of Stevie Wonder, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, disco rhythms, and jazz. However, the jazz as performed by Jimi Tenor is clearly not meant for clean freaks in silk suits—just listen to the unimaginable cover version of Caravan by Duke Ellington! The influence of Sun Ra, Suicide, and Barry White is also clearly noticeable.
In his concerts, he appears to the audience in a translucent shirt embroidered with golden flowers and red plastic pants. The musician sits behind an electronic organ, on which lies a bouquet of roses and a bottle of champagne. All women are referred to by the raspy charmer solely as "baby." Sometimes he leaves the electronic organ and grabs the saxophone. While pounding the keys, Jimi makes terrible faces, but when playing the saxophone, he is gentle and thoughtful. Riding the wave of colossal success, in 1999, Warp releases the album "Organism," in which funk rhythms in the spirit of early Parliament replace techno-jazz improvisations and touchingly ironic soul ballads, and in 2000, the fundamental album "Out of Nowhere," recorded in Poland where 60 members of the Lodz Grand Theater orchestra crowded the studio together with Tenor.
In Moscow, Jimi Tenor will perform on the stage of the B-2 club on April 13, 2002, accompanied by a band consisting of two British and three Finnish musicians. The eccentric star of "techno-cabaret" will present a new program - cosmic retro-futurism and soul ballads from his latest album "Utopian Dream."
JIMI TENOR and the band
Club "B-2": Metro Mayakovskaya, B. Sadovaya 8, phone: 209-10-91, 209-99-09
April 13, 2002
23:00.