Live in Helsinki documents the performance of Finnish tenor sax hero Timo Lassy and his hard-cooking trio – double bass player Ville Herrala and drummer Jaska Lukkarinen, at G Livelab, Helsinki’s premiere live music spot in September 2023. It is the sophomore album of the trio, following the self-titled debut (We Jazz, 2021), and features five pieces from Lassy’s extensive repertoire that receive generous, highly potent interpretations, colored more outside of the lines than on Lassy’s studio albums.

Lassy plays the saxophone like he means, with a big, commanding, and soulful sound that is inspired by mid-1960s-styled soul jazz with a touch of boogaloo sensibility. His trio’s live sound is muscular and rough around the edges, stressing the immediate, deep rapport of this working trio, and its funky-swinging dynamics, and pushes Lassy to fly and soar higher and higher. There is a natural uplifting sense of joy in the dynamics of this trio, that sounds bigger than its parts. Lassy, Herrala, and Lukkarinen push each other to find new nuances in these clever, no-nonsense, expressive pieces in a manner that radiates their tight interplay.

This was a sold-out hometown show for a band that needed no hype but deserved the appreciation of the enthusiastic audience that was familiar with Lassy’s pieces. It proves why Lassy usually packs the house when he plays a hometown show. He always gives more than what you came for. I loved the bluesy «African Rumble» (including the outro, originally from The Soul and Jazz of Timo Lassy, Ricky-tick, 2007) and the closing, beautiful ballad «Love Bullet» (originally from the album by the same title, Membran, 2015).

Eyal Hareuveni

Timo Lassy (tenor saxophone), Ville Herrala (double bass), Jaska Lukkarinen (drums)