JUHANI AALTONEN
Genres: Post-Fusion Contemporary, Avant-Garde Jazz, Third Stream, Progressive Big Band, Classic Fusion, 21st Century Modern • Finland

Juhani Aaltonen (born December 12, 1935)  is a Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist. Born in Kouvola, Finland, he began playing professionally at the end of the 1950s. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music. Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki and began working both as a session musician and with fusion groups. Later in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala, as well as in the group Eero Koivistoinen for four years. He played with Tasavallan Presidentti in their earlier days, including for their first, eponymous, album. He recorded with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and with Heikki Sarmanto in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his first album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974. In 1975, he became a read more...