Töykeät "Rudeness" gradually catching on abroad
BACKGROUND
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By Mari Koppinen
In the course of 17 years, Trio Töykeät have morphed into a rather cosmopolitan outfit - so cosmopolitan, in fact, that these days nearly all of their gigging takes them abroad.
And when in the early days the trio appeared mainly in small jazz clubs, the last tour of Asia saw them on stage in 2,000-seater halls and at large jazz festivals.
How was all this possible?
"It is the sum of many parts", answers Tapio Korjus, who has managed Trio Töykeät almost from the very beginning.
"The first overseas bridgehead came from Australia, when manager/promoter Henk van Leeuwen discovered the trio in the early 1990s. Since then more local agents have been added."
Another factor has been appearances at numerous Finnish Embassy and Finnish Institute occasions and gigs on UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador tours. These have in turn created a demand for normal touring activities.
Korjus reports that initially the contacts with Asian promoters were forged at international music industry fairs. In particular the band's performance at Asia Midem in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s spawned a lot of bookings around Asia.
In Taiwan, for example, Trio Töykeät are the first European jazz outfit that EMI has released in the territory on its Blue Note label.
"But look, we are not talking here about foreign sales in the tens of thousands of albums", says Korjus, anxious to keep matters in proportion. "In Finland the group can sell more than 10,000 copies of a CD, but abroad we are talking hundreds, perhaps thousands, per country."
In addition to the Far East, Australia, and New Zealand, Trio Töykeät have gained a foothold in quite a few European countries, including Italy, Denmark, and the Benelux region.
In Germany, the band's popularity has been going ballistic. They get invited back to the same festivals three or even four times in succession, despite the fact that the normal practice is to shake up festival programmes with new acts each year. This year they will actually play more gigs in Germany than back home.
On the other hand, Spain, France and the British Isles are all areas where Trio Töykeät are still waiting to break through.
The same goes for Sweden. "Yes, well, the fact of the matter seems to be that the Swedes don't much want to understand anything that comes from Finland", snorts Korjus.
"Still, the rest of the world is beginning to be quite well aware of Trio Töykeät's existence."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.9.2005
More on this subject:
 Trio Töykeät happily leave the serious stuff to others
Links:
Trio Töykeät on Henk van Leeuwen´s Australia Northern Europe Liaisons site
MARI KOPPINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mari.koppinen@hs.fi
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