JIMI TENOR BIG BAND, Pauk, Zg, 04/03/03

He looks like Andy Warhol, his glases are Elton John type from the seventies, his voice is somewhere between Cave, Elvis and Prince, he wears the long tiger skin on his back, plays keyboard, sax, flute, propeller and many other instruments. This could be described as the first impression I got from the appearance of Lassi Lehto, or JIMI TENOR (JT). He appeared on the stage accompanied by ten "eccentric" players (guitar, bas guitar, drums, congas + mostly 2 sax, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones wit addition of horn, flute and some sort of little trumpet) wearing blue mantles as the "big band" should (with slates on their chest and with music stands that had JIMI TENOR BIG BAND (JTBB) sign, where JT on his music stand had a deer). At first sight and according to the first description this may sound like a "big swing band", but in reality this is a mixture of jazzy, funky with huuuuuuuuuuuuge parts of "electronic" psychedelic parts.
JTBB, have played among other songs, the older "classic" songs such as " "Sugardaddy", "Call of the Wild", "Take Me Baby"... which in new arrangements sound much better. I assume that majority of the performance was based on the new material "High Planes", recently released by "Kitty Yo" (it may have been purchased in PAUK), but before the concert I was familiar only with "Black Hole" (which may be downloaded from Jimmy's site, as well as many other mp3), which also sounds better in live performance. If I am not mistaken this number was played as the last (I am not 100% positive about that).
Anyway, the last number was totally psychedelic, and during its performance JT took something that reminded me of coffee mil, and started making strange sounds, and also weird sudden moving through the air but also through the floor. When leaving the stage he wrapped himself into the wire of this strange instrument and almost fell all over the floor. Delighted and happy audience (which came that evening in the perfect number to fulfil the concert hall), called them to return to the stage for 3 times. First two times they returned and played two songs each time and thus made the concert almost 2 hours long, but when they appeared for the third time they charmingly said that they have run out of the material and they thanked to the audience for their support and participation in the program, and so they left in peace. We left with happy smiles on our faces, even though it was quite late/early, and in the morning we were supposed to go to work.
I would recommend such two hours of good time to anyone, regardless of whether he knows JT music or not. Therefore, the next time you hear the word that JTBB are playing somewhere in the neighbourhood, you definitely should go.

pedja // 06/03/2003

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PS: touched by the hand of lana