Sähkömies by Jimi Tenor
Shaping the future of Jazz
Thirty-odd years ago, in his former New York bar residence, Lassi Lehto laid down the tracks for his first solo album Sähkömies. The Finnish musician, more commonly known as Jimi Tenor ('Jimi' because he looked like Jimmy Osmond as a child and 'Tenor' because of his obsession with the saxophone) had recently split his first band Jimi Tenor And His Shamans (a raucous, oil-drum banging, experimental Rock outfit who released four albums between 1988-92) with the idea of becoming a photographer. Buying an Oberheim DX and Roland 606 suggested otherwise though, as he soon began exploring a lighter, fresher form of music, one inspired by Tommi Grönlund's and Matti Knaapi's 'Ambient Radio' project, that combined drum machines, electronic sounds and Sun Ra-inspired Jazz. He was shaping what became known as Future Jazz.
Released in 1994 Sähkömies may be a leap from the Shamans but Tenor's pursuit of the experimental continued to underpin all eight tracks. Take the curated cacophony of Voimamies for example, there's no saxophone or organ and the sounds are disjointed with deep resonating bass; more Bleep Techno than Future Jazz. And Matti B, with its weird whirls and spare rhythm, is a hybrid loop jam. Yet, opening the album with a trio of Jazz-rapt tracks, Theme Sax, with its lounging vibes, courtesy of Tenor's smooth and smoky tenor, followed by the cheesy-not-cheesy organ riffing on Crazy Hammond and lastly Union Ave, with its sick-sax offset by programmed rhythms and background TV/radio broadcast, sets a tone that bleeds into and informs the whole.
Connecting this opening triplet with the more experimental tracks that follow is central track and outlier Take Me Baby. Like a precursor to Electroclash, with its throbbing rhythm and Pop lyric, it shifts the mood by disrupting the flow; how very Jazz-apt. (Yet without its inclusion, Tenor's career may not have have blossomed as it did. Take Me Baby was a massive hit in Europe when it was later licensed by Warp Records and released as a single in 1996. To this day Tenor maintains it's his most popular track.) Neatly completing the Jazz circle, Tenor closes with an appropriately experimental cover version of Sun Ra's We Travel the Spaceways.
Celebrating thirty years since its original release, Bureau B are releasing Sähkömies again on CD and vinyl.