Kalle Salonen – Barracuda Man (2016)

When I was on seventh to ninth grade, we had, in our school, a class for children with intellectual disabilities. I remember from many events in our school where kids from that class would perform. Some were dancing and some were playing music. I specifically remember this man, Kalle Salonen, who used to play piano really well already back then. Earlier this year, I found out that he had become a great groove jazz organ player. I went to see him play with some of my friends in Helsinki this summer. He had a great band and the music grooved beautifully. They even had a visiting star, Jukka Gustavson, one of the best organ players in Finland, playing with them. Kalle and him were kind of battling on solos. Barracuda Man album was there on sale and I bought it. It's a great groove jazz and funk album full of great songs.



Kalle Salonen isn't the only person from the aforementioned class who became a professional musician. Toni Välitalo who plays the drums in Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, was also on that class and he was also there in the audience watching his friend play. Pertti kurikan nimipäivät is a punk band, consisting of people with intellectual disabilities, which was the Finland's entry to Eurovision song contest a couple of years back. So, a few people from that class have made a great contribution to the Finnish music scene in the recent years.

Kalle Salonen mainly plays the hammond organs on this album, even though he also plays the piano. The songs are not very complicated when comparing to many other jazz records of the recent years, but there's a great groove in the songs. This is the kind of music that's really nice to listen to on a night out and it works even better live.

To my best knowledge, Kalle Salonen hasn't made music videos, but I still want to link a live recording of his band at Loose, a Helsinki-based rock club. Kalle Salonen even hosted his own Hammond club at the very same venue.

There are quite a few visiting musicians on this album and some of the songs even have vocals. I like the songs with easy grooves and instrumental jams the most. In addition to the organ sounds, there are some great bass lines, fantastic horn sections and jazzy vocals on this album. The songs do not necessarily form that clear whole, but individually the songs work pretty well.

I'm really glad to see that Kalle Salonen, the boy who played the piano so well and enthusiastically at school, got to make these kinds of great songs with other amazing Finnish musicians.

Listen to the album on Spotify.