Jul 24, 2020

RhoDeo 2029 Grooves

Hello, sad news Hull has been relegated (again) 3rd level football from now on, and to make matters worse today the end has been reached after 12 weeks of music from Hull. It was great right through the first wave of the Corona crises thank you Steve Cobby and Co.



Today's Artist is a musician and composer has never settled for the traditional role of a pop artist. He is known as a productive musician whose work lies beyond current trends, and also as a performer who combines the finest elements of afro-american music, spontaneous silliness and shameless glamour in an original way.........N Joy

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Jimi Tenor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and producer. Since 1994, the Finnish native's work had ranged across the modern music genre spectrum. Though he began recording with Jimi Tenor & His Shamans in the '80s, his solo career in electronic dance music with Sähkömies -- techno to be precise -- in 1994, put him on the international map. His sound has continued to evolve, embracing numerous strains of jazz (he's a world-class baritone and tenor saxophonist and flutist) and African music traditions. He has recorded and produced funk and neo soul with Nicole Willis, global jazz with Abdissa Assefa and Tony Allen, 21st century Afrobeat with Berlin's Kabu Kabu, and a dub/metal/funk fusion outing with Hjálmar, Iceland's premier reggae outfit. He credits influences such as Barry White, Isaac Hayes, and '70s B-movie and blaxploitation soundtracks for his musical career. With 1997's Intervision, he was already experimenting with jazz-funk. 2004's Beyond the Stars, recorded in collaboration with members of the Five Corners Quintet (including Timo Lassy and Jukka Escola) and pioneers the boundary-dissolving sound of post-bop jazz melded to soul and house music. He commenced a long collaborative relationship with Kabu Kabu on the jazz-funk outing Joystone in 2007. They have continued to collaborate on occasion. Two years later, he and Allen cut Inspiration Information for Strut, wedding Afrobeat and modern jazz. In 2013, Tenor collaborated with the avant-jazz big band UMO on Mysterium Magnum, issued a progressive rock offering with Tenors of Kalma for 2015's Electric Willow, and in 2020 made a full return to electronic music with Metamorpha.

Jimi Tenor was born in 1965 as Lassi O. T. Lehto in Lahti, Finland. The resemblance to the youngest member of The Osmonds, Little Jimmy Osmond, earned him his nickname of Jimi in the early '70s.Just like his older brother Marko, Jimi had a passion for music. He studied for many years at a music institute and can play flute, piano and saxophone; his skills were further implemented by his work experience as the saxophone player for various bands. At 16 he was the youngest member of Pallosalama (Thunderball), an orchestra which used to tour Finland with a sort of Saturday night dance shows for older people. This act was very popular then and also appeared on the Syksyn Sävel (Melody of Autumn), a song contest on Finnish Television. Later on he was part of the Pop-Rock group Himo (Lust) as a saxophone and keyboards player. In 1986 the band gained some success in the Finnish Rock Championships and released a self-titled album along with a few singles on the Amulet and Cityboy labels. Tenor was also responsible for the music and lyrics of a couple of the band's songs.

Other groups in which Jimi was involved in the mid-80s include The Cherry Pickers, Iloinen Poika Milloin (Happy Boy When) - a band founded by his brother - and... Shaman!
Jimi Tenor and His Shamans were founded during 1986; this new project was an experimental evolution of the more ordinary Rock band Shaman. At the time, Tenor had recently discovered the Industrial sound of Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Dept. The group consisted of Ilkka Mattila (guitar), Toni Kuusisto (bass) Niklas Häggblom (trumpet), and Enver Hoxha (real name Hannu Mäkelä, atonal alt bass), with Tero Kling playing drums as an added member. Jimi was the lead singer, played tenor saxophone and - just like all the other members of the band - banged on empty oil barrels, a trademark of their sound both in studio and live.

Matti Knaapi, a graphic designer and inventor, allowed the band to embrace a more experimental sound helping Jimi to create special equipment in the form of self-built musical instruments bearing names like Vera (an automatic trombone), Sirkka (a man-sized mechanical drum machine), Melukone (a noise machine) and The Liberace (a peculiar-looking stainless steel object which is hard to describe).

In the late '80s, Tenor moved to New York, where he worked as a tourist photographer at the Empire State Building. He finally hooked up with Sähkö after receiving a copy of a solo recording by Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and Ø). Impressed with the label's openness to experimentalism (Sähkö had previously been known as something of the muso's minimalist techno label), Tenor sent along some tapes and landed a recording contract, releasing his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. While in New York he also recorded with Khan/4E's Can Oral (under the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the "Traffic" single on Ozon in 1995. Tenor returned to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sähkö (funded, oddly enough, by a government grant) and has remained there since, Tenor gained the attention of influential Sheffield label Warp after releasing the full-length Europa in 1996, leading to a recording deal and reissue plans for some of Tenor's Sähkö releases. Warp featured the previously unavailable Tenor cut "Downtown" on their Blechsdottir label comp and released the 7"/CD single "Can't Stay with You Baby" a few months later, with two additional singles appearing in early 1997.releasing Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and recording arrangements with Warp. The full-length Intervision was released in 1997, followed two years later by Organism.

After the release of Out of Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sähkö parted ways with Warp. The saxophonist collaborated with his musical instrument-designing partner Matti Knaapi, drummer Edward Vesala, DJ/producer Jimi Sumen, and harpist Iro Haarla, on the experimental album City Of Women, cut at Vesala's home studio. Unfortunately, Vesala died before it was released. Tenor's sixth full-length, Utopian Dream, an overtly solo electronics record, still received import distribution. Tenor was performing with a large band for 2004's Beyond the Stars, distributed widely through Kitty-Yo, and 2007's Joystone with his backing unit Kabu Kabu. The combination also paired for 2009's 4th Dimension. In 2010, Tenor and Afro-beat drum legend Tony Allen collaborated on a volume in Strut's excellent Inspiration Information series. Ifetune, a collaboration with Ethiopian percussionist Abdissa "Mamba" Assefa, appeared in 2011. In February of 2012, the first exhibition of Tenor's photographs was shown at the Kingi Kongi Gallery in Helsinki, followed by his first feature film, Sähkö, which debuted in Berlin. He capped the eventful year by releasing The Mystery of Aether with Kabu Kabu for Kindred Spirits.

Tenor recorded the experimental Dub of Doom with Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar in 2013, as well as the experimental Exocosmos with Lassi Lehto's global Imposter Orchestra. He and Nicole Willis co-produced Finnish band Haunted by Hallucinations' self-titled debut album, and he played on Masterstone by Lehto's Flat Earth Society.


His long association with vanguard saxophonist Kalle Kalima and drummer Joonas Rippa in the Tenors of Kalma resulted in the album Electric Willow, which was issued by Enja's Yellowbird imprint in 2015, the same year as his collaboration with UMO Jazz Orchestra on the 12-track Mysterium Magnum from Herakles. The following year, the label released his full-length spiritual jazz- cum-Afrobeat set Saxentric. Two collaborative EPs were issued in 2017, first, Big Fantasy (For Me) with Nicole Willis and Jonathan Maron in March, followed by Sleepover with Freestyle Man in November. In 2018, Tenor issued Order of Nothingness an exercise in global soul-jazz and funk and played a classifiable gig with Tony Allen's band at the OTO Live Series, issued as an album by Moog Recordings. In 2019, City of Women, Vol. 2 with Vesala, Haarla, Sumen, and Knaapi was issued, consisting of material cut in 2000. In early 2020, Tenor issued Metamorpha on BubbleTease Communications. Written and recorded with bassist/ house music producer Maurice Fulton, the album marked a solid return to dance music with jazzy overtones; all instruments were performed by the duo. In March, Bureau B issued the double-length compilation Ny, Hel, Barca, that collected 20 tracks from Tenor's first six albums, between 1994 and 2001.

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His first recording band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans (1986-1992) was influenced by the early 80s industrial rock, where instruments were made out of scrap metal and plastic
Some serious Finnish Aetix here, ghosts of the Stooges, Devo, Contortions, Neubauten all very energetic stuff, great intro's this was their third album 2 years later followed their last album with the intriguing title Fear of a Black Jesus , but by that time Tenor was looking for a solo career, never the less had this album reached me at that time, i'd probably bought it



 Jimi Tenor and His Shamans - Mekanoid  (flac   269mb)

01 Splash 2:29
02 Blasted With Extacy 4:19
03 Snooker (Memphis) 1:27
04 Luxurious Loneliness 3:27
05 Blood on Every Flag 4:29
06 Destroy 3:21
07 Gravitation 2:21
08 Television 3:14
09 Hey You 4:16
10 Snooker (Tekno) 1:43
11 Ugh 2:54
12 Business Wise 2:29
13 380v (Le Petomane) 4:24

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Widely considered to be Tenor's best album, Sahkomies really was a bolt out of the blue when it was originally released on the mighty Sahko label back in 1994.The album features nine tracks of idiosyncratic electronic jazz fusions and variations, from the real acid fusion of 'Union Street' to unique technopop of the mighty 'Take Me Baby' (as eventually remixed by Autechre), the Vainio-esque 'Matti B', and the awesome Radiophonic abstraction of 'Voimamies'. The kind of explorative, idiosyncratic record that really can only be made by a solo artist, sounds like little else out there - highly recommended.



  Jimi Tenor - Sahkomies  (flac   279mb)

01 Theme Sax 3:30
02 Crazy Hammond 6:16
03 Union Ave 7:01
04 Take Me Baby 3:38
05 Matti B 7:34
06 Teräsmies 3:10
07 Voimamies 3:49
08 Travelin Dem Spaceways 4:51
09 Union Ave lll 8:52 .

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On Europa finds Jimi in an relaxed, somewhat ironic and inpired mood. At the time of release, acid jazz was starting it's succesful if shortlived career, and Europa has some inspirational acid jazz elements, the subtle humor does also help to make this a classic. The loungy moods with relaxed grooves are mixed with furious sax, flute and keyboard solos. The melodies are strong and very memorable, and each song has it's significant feeling. Tenor wrote 11 little soundtracks for imaginairy movies, in this context he scores just fine. Europa's original release on Sahko was an almost instant underground classic.



Jimi Tenor - Europa (flac   301mb)

01 We'd Like To Capture Your Mind 8:23
02 Porkbag 6:40
03 Ho'oponopono 4:26
04 Sirens At Dusk 7:02
05 Stropharia Cubensis 3:42
06 Dresden 5:38
07 Black Pudding 4:52

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Tenor's lead-up singles to his full-length Warp debut -- "Outta Space" and "Can't Stay With You Baby," as well as the track "Downtown," included on the Warp mixed session Blechsdottir -- only hinted at where he'd head with this album. An almost uncharacteristically schmaltz-less collection of minimal electronic jazz, Intervision blends fat organ leads with horns, raw and treated vocals, and rhythmic and percussive figures drawn from '60s and '70s soul, funk, fusion, and psychedelia, as well as contemporary house, downbeat, and techno. Oddly (or not), the album was recorded using only ancient Russian analog gear, in a former Communist dancehall. The most underated artist from WARP's back catalogue has all the right moves on this sleazy, downtempo, backalley scrapbook.



Jimi Tenor - Intervision (flac   333mb)

01 Outta Space 6:25
02 Downtown 4:09
03 Sugardaddy 7:24
04 Never Say It Aloud 5:27
05 Can't Stay With You Baby 4:35
06 Tesla 4:53
07 Caravan 4:49
08 Wiping Out 5:05
09 Shore Hotel 4:23
10 Nobody's Perfect 5:02
11 Atlantis 6:50

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rho.
The link for Europa doesn't seem to work. Would you be able to check?

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Here's the link for Europa: https://www.mirrored.to/files/1A9MV4L2/

Anonymous said...

Hello, Rho-Xs. Jimi Tenor - Intervision, or Cobby & Litten - My People Come From The Sea?

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I had heard *of* Jimi Tenor but never heard any of his material. Holy crap, it's good stuff! Thank you for sharing it