Raoul Björkenheim

Raoul Melvin Björkenheim ( born March 19, 1956 in Los Angeles ) is a Finnish- American jazz and fusion guitarist.

Life and work

Raoul Björkenheim, the son of actress Taina Elg and Carl Björkenheim, grew up in the United States. After he had previously tried on the violin and the trumpet, he discovered the guitar at age 13. In 1971 he went to Helsinki to school and started on the Leningrad Conservatory in 1977 to study classical guitar and composition; more interested in improvisation, he moved to Boston in 1978, where he completed his studies at the Berklee College of Music in 1981. In the early 1980s he founded with Jone Takamäki, Antti Hytti, Jarmo Savolainen and Tom Nekljudow the group Roommushklahn. He is one of the major figures of the Finnish jazz since his work in Edward Vesalas Sound & Fury band, on the ECM album Lumi (1986 ) he played. In the late 1980s Björkenheim left the band by Vesala, to form their own jazz-rock formation, Krakatau. After two albums that were initially only appeared in Finland, he exchanged all the band members and then took in the early 1990s, inter alia, with Ulf Krokfors, Jone Takamaki and Alf Forsman or Ippe Kätka two more albums for ECM; after which he disbanded the group.

After solo projects followed as Apokalypso (2001) or the internationally staffed group Phantom City, which was directed by Paul Schütze and a recording session with guitarist Nicky Skopelitis. He was now considered " a pioneer for a new, avant-garde jazz-rock understanding. " He also worked as a soloist and arranger for the Finnish UMO Jazz Orchestra, with which he interpreted the music of Miles Davis from his electric period ( Electrifying Miles, 1997). Since 2001 he lives in New York City. Since 2003, he appears in the Scorch Trio on Haker Flaten and Paal Ingebrigt with Nilssen -Love; on their second CD, he also plays the electrically amplified viola da gamba. An appearance in 2006 with William Parker and Hamid Drake was released as an album. In a duo with drummer Lukas Ligeti in 2008, he toured through Europe.

Björk home guitar playing is influenced by what the critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Frank Zappa and Miles Davis's Agharta and shaped by feedback effects and distortions; he combines influences of the music of John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler.

Prizes and awards

Björkenheim was awarded the Yrjö Award of the Finnish Jazz Society as "Jazz Musician of the Year 1984 ". He received the 1986 Young Finland Prize in 1986 and the Emma Award for "Best Finnish jazz recording in 1992 ."

Disco Graphical Notes

• Edward Vesala: Lumi (ECM, 1986)
• Krakatoa: Ritual ( Cuneiform, 1988-90; republishing 1996 with additional material )
• Krakatoa: Volition (ECM, 1991)
• Krakatoa: Matinale (ECM, 1993)
• Scorch Trio: * Brolt! (2008)
• Lucas Ligeti: Shadowglow (TUM, 2003)
• Raoul Björkenheim, Bill Laswell, Morgan Agren: Blixt (2011)