Janne Tuomi profile picture

Janne Tuomi

free-music journeyman

About Me


drummer / percussionist
www.jannetuomi.com
Janne Tuomi was born in 1973 in Tampere. Coming from a family of musicians and music educators, it was only natural that this first-born began playing the piano at the age of six. But the infatuation was not to last as percussion soon lured him away from the ebonies and ivories.
Tuomi commenced studying at the Conservatory of Tampere in 1995 and further honed his skills at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark. After undertaking a study trip to New York City, Tuomi graduated from the Conservatory in 2000 with honours. In 2001 he travelled to Los Angeles to take private lessons. In 2006 Tuomi did his diploma recital as part of Tampere Biennale contemporary music festival, again with honours.
During his professional career Tuomi has acted as a free jazz drummer, classical percussonist and everything in between. He has performed with guitarists Antti Kotikoski, Sakari Luoma and Marzi Nyman, saxophonists Daunik Lazro, Jone Takamäki and Jorma Tapio, pianists Iro Haarla and Seppo Kantonen, bass players Ulf Krokfors, Sampo Lassila and Claude Tchamitchian and numerous others.
In recent times Tuomi has taken part in productions by the Balanescu Quartet and John Zorn’s ’Finnish Cobra’ . Jazz and classical aside, the percussionist works with groups like Slobo Horo and Vilddas that specialize in world music. He is also the percussionist in renowned trance rock group Circle.
Apart from recording and performing various styles of music with a burning passion, Tuomi teaches percussion both privately and at the Palmgren Conservatory in Pori. He is also experienced as a theater musician.
text©petri silas 2004
Booking: www.vapaataanet.fi

My Interests

Studying TCM, Qi-Gong & Ashtanga Yoga

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I'd like to meet:

Kaski, Circle, Markku Peltola & Buster Keaton Orchestra, Suurin Onni, Osuma Ensemble, Gentle Evil, Rakhim...

Music:

Press quotes of Janne Tuomi solo-cd 'Approaching' (Ektro 030):

”Approaching shows that Tuomi, while absorbing useful precedents from a range of musical fields, has developed his own vision of where the percussionist's role may take him.””The structure of Approaching, its varied instrumentation and mutations of pace readily suggest narrative, with Tuomi as storyteller relating a journey through a series of states from turbulence to eventual meditative calm. More importantly, it's a lively and serious engagement with the power, colour and nuance of sound. The rattling shells, gong splash and tinkling bells are evocative but they are also as much the substance of the music as Tuomi's energetic polyrhytmic kitwork.”
Julian Cowley
THE WIRE, November 2004

”Tuomi’s use of wide ranging tones contributes to the cd’s distinctive soundscapes. They feel as though they have been carefully collaged using instrumental soundings that entirely compliment each other. It is both colourful and absorbing in its execution and the deployment of materials and should certainly tempt anyone who thinks an album consisting solely of percussion is not for them.”
Paul Donnelly
www.ejazznews.com

”Tuomi’s solo methodolgy consists of noisy drumkit bashing alternating with gongs and cymbals sounding in shimmering waves, a pattern that takes on the feel of ritual. The drones, rattles, and sickly trumpet added to this at various times increase the aura of mystery and elemental energy. The final piece, ”Contemplation,” really emphasizes the ritual aspect as Tuomi moves from cymbals to Indian drones to thumb piano and, finally, gongs with a grand sense of form and purpose, not unlike what the late Finnish drummer Edward Vesala used to do in his bands. A lot of Finnish jazz draws from the folk elements of their culture. Here is one impressive example.”
Jerome Wilson
Cadence

”Approaching does not sound like jazz in the conventional sense. It is often difficult, even impossible, to ascertain how much is composed and how much is improvised. Yet, this is ordered, thoughtful music, and it is pleasantly surprising how much there is to hear.” ” Tuomi builds each piece carefully, even meticulously. ” ”adventurous, unique album.”
Marc Meyers
AllAbout Jazz

”...the drumming is so intensely enjoyable it needs to be heard without accompaniment to be enjoyed properly. Difficult, but deep and rewarding, ‘Approaching’ is a marvellous record.”
Boomkat Records

”Carefully constructed, rising and falling, with hazy drone and dramatic clatter, soothing bells and rattling sticks...not a noisy racket at all, but a personal sound-world quite listenable for something that falls into the 'solo percussion' category.”
Aquarius Records

"It's difficult to find words that do justice to conservatory-trained Finnish percussionist, free-music journeyman, and occasional Circle drummer Janne Tuomi. Approaching, his solo debut from 2004, kicks up clouds of sustained, polymorphous rhythms that are as stark as an empty temple yet as powerful as a collapsing building. Well-placed bursts of pocket trumpet and reverberating gongs add color to the shifting, tidal clatter. Like a less industrial, quieter Z'ev for the new millennium, Tuomi has located a unique intersection between avant-garde drone, the jazz improv of Edvard Vesala or Milford Graves, and the grace of mother nature herself."
HarvestTime Records

”for those of free mind.”
Scratch Records

Heroes:

Elvin Jones, Milford Graves, Edward Vesala, Ed Thigpen, Rashied Ali, Ed Blackwell, Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, Tony Williams, John Bergamo, Glen Velez, Layne Redmond, Airto, Mickey Hart, Peter Erskine, Billy Higgins, Al Foster, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Roswell Rudd, Charles Mingus, Hal Russell, Toru Takemitsu, John Cage, Steve Reich, George Crumb, Harry Partch, Jean Sibelius, J.S.Bach, Alan Silva, Don Cherry, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Mats Gustafsson, Milt Jackson, Prince, ...