Skip to content
Siete qui: Home Festival Artisti JPP
JPP PDF Print E-mail
jpp.jpgIn the early eighties, a group of young fiddlers from the tiny village of Järvelä began making some noise in local folk music circles. I JÄRVELÄN PIKKUPELIMANNIT (Little Folk Musicians of Järvelä) descended from a line of folk musicians going back to the late 1800s. Performing folk tunes from those villages, they attracted attention with their arrangements (most folk tunes at that time were played straight with no embellishments), their harmonies, new compositions, influences from Swedish folk music and their youth (ages 17-25). Also significant was the fact that they started to play folk tunes from all over Finland, not just from their own locale, which was the standard practice.
The first big break for the group came when they landed first prize at the Finnish Championship Competition for Folk Music Groups in Mäntsälä, Finland in 1982. The success at the Mäntsälä competition led to instant national fame with gigs all over Finland and soon they were playing in Sweden. In 1983, JÄRVELÄN PIKKUPELIMANNIT financed and released their first record, an EP of eight traditional tunes from the Kaustinen area, an area long recognized as a thriving folk music center, rich in culture, tradition and talent.
It was at this time that the group began to establish themselves at the annual Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, playing at dances and making their own concerts. Their first album was recorded in 1985 and released in February 1986 on the Olarin Musiikki label of Finland. 1986 was topped off when they were voted 'Band of the Year' at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. In 1987 the group began work on an ambitious recording project which was to be a double album. This outstanding work, half traditional tunes, half original compositions, was released in spring of 1988 and received instant critical acclaim, winning them the Finnish Radio Corporation 'Tunnustus Prize' and the 'Album of the Year' award from Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's biggest daily newspaper. More international offers came in and JPP found themselves touring Germany, Norway, Sweden in1990, in England, plus another tour of Germany in 1991 and in the USA in the 1992. Fourth album Pirun Polska was released, but the big event, however, was the release of the first JPP video, Puikkoristikko. In January 1994, JPP's fourth album Devil's Polska was released in USA. European activities took them on a short tour of Switzerland, followed by the release of JPP's fifth album Kaustinen Rhapsody. In July, JPP hit the states for a two week tour, followed by dates in Chicago, Minneapolis and New York.
In April 1995 JPP participated in the 'Out of the Cool' program at Vienna Festival; following that, JPP went to Belgium for the Dranouter Festival. In October 1995: festival appearances in San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain and in November 1996 third tour of Switzerland.In May 1998 they record a new album, String Tease. Swedish guest stars Väsen make appearances on two tracks. In February 1999, JPP travelled again to USA, other dates for 1999 include Lisbon, Wien, Nibe, Helsinki, Switzerland, Sweden and more.
In 2001 JPP goes to Moscow for four concerts in the 'Art Goes Kapakka' series, in 2003: performances in UK in Edinburgh and Stirling, and in 2004 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and guest soloist Maria Kalaniemi.