Sole Azul tours by electric car in Lapland – Jazz Federation’s tour pilots measure climate impact
During fall 2022, we study the emissions of seven differently produced tours, and collect data about their impacts and user experiences. The extensive touring season is opened by the jazz-tango threesome Sole Azul in August 15–21 in Lapland, where they set up a residence in the village of Kaukonen, and commute to concerts by an electric car.
The first of the seven pilot tours sees saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen, accordionist Harri Kuusijärvi and bassist Eero Tikkanen performing in Western Lapland during the best fall colors. The nature’s multi-toned palette reflects also the acoustic trio’s music, as they paint it with both, the reds, yellows and blacks of Argentinian tango and the blues, greens and whites of the Finnish seasons – blended with the rainbow of jazz.
Sole Azul sets their week-long residence in the village of Kaukonen in Kittilä, and drives their fully electric rental to five concert locations. The vehicle is rented in Rovaniemi, to where the trio travels by train from Helsinki. The local partner of this tour is Hiljaisuus artist association, who strive to enhance the artists’ working conditions in Lapland.
“Tour in Lapland is a return to the roots. Not just my own, but also the band’s: the unforgettable founding camp of the trio took place some years ago in Pello’s Lankojärvi lake. Lapland’s strange magic is still a part of the band’s dna”, says accordionist Kuusijärvi.
Kuusijärvi sees Jazz Finland’s climate project as an important and concrete step towards sustainable touring: “In a country the size of Finland, it’s practically impossible to be a professional performing artist without covering a decently large turf and mileage. Already we think about our carbon footprint, prefer trains over flights, and some pioneers have even tried carbon-neutral touring. We hope that carbon-neutrality is soon a given thing on jazz tours too.”.
Sole Azul begins their tour in Kaukonen, Kittilä on the 15th of August. The “home base” concert is followed by Muonio on Aug 17, Ylläs in Äkäslompolo on Aug 19, Tornio on the 20th and finally Rovaniemi on the 21st of August.
The tour is supported by Finnish Music Foundation MES.
Piloting various touring possibilities reveals climate effects
In 2022–2023, the Finnish Jazz Federation runs a project, titled “Finnish Jazz Federation’s carbon-neutral touring model”. The aim is to map the carbon footprint and handprint of Finnish live music, and to develop Jazz Finland’s own tour system to become more environmentally sustainable. On top of their three regular tour productions, the federation produces or supports seven pilot tours in the fall of 2022.
In addition to the organization’s own tour bus, the touring acts hit the road by train and electric car, and besides making circular routings to cover the whole of Finland, there are more localized tours, like one in Lapland and one in the South-Western archipelago, and one of the bands travels to Sweden to tour locally there, using public transportation. One of the pilot tours combines evening concerts to school concerts during the days, to approach new audiences while they’re in the area.
In addition to collecting emission data and experiences, Finnish Jazz Federation encourages the bands and the concert organizers to take action against climate change. The bands are provided with information and templates to draft their own “green riders” and use them in the future bookings too. The concert promoters also get support and tips to take steps towards greener events. These climate-smart choices include preferring low-carbon transportation methods and providing information about them to audiences too, saving energy and choosing renewable sources, reducing waste and recycling materials, and making healthy, vegan food easily available to artists, staff and audiences.
The Jazz Federation’s sustainability efforts are affiliated with the broader development in the Finnish live music industry. The small but driven association also coordinates the 2022–2023 project to engage a great number of live professionals and measure the climate impacts of the whole Finnish live music sector. Together with sustainability specialists and the leading Finnish music organizations, the project results in the live music branch’s road map to carbon-neutrality.
Sole Azul
Pauli Lyytinen, saxophone / Harri Kuusijärvi, accordeon / Eero Tikkanen, double bass
www.harrikuusijarvi.com/soleazul
www.hiljaisuusfestivaali.fi/residenssi
Sole Azul on a Residency Tour 15.–21.8.2022
Mon 15.8. at 19.00 Kittilä, Kaukonen, Töpäri
Wed 17.8. at 17.00 Muonio, Muonio library
Fri 19.8. at 18.00 Äkäslompolo, Yllästunturi Nature Centre Kellokas
Sat 20.8. at 18.00 Tornio, Åström Manor Courtyard Riihi
Sun 21.8. at 16.00 Rovaniemi, Ounasvaara’s Juhannuskallion lava
Produced in co-operation with Hiljaisuus association
Other pilot tours in 2022:
25.8.–4.9.2022 Quartet Ajaton – Co-production Tour
19.–25.9.2022 Jonathan Bäckström Quartet – Coastal Tour
3.–9.10.2022 Jazzup! – Clubs and Schools Tour
10.–16.10.2022 Adele Sauros Quartet – Nordic Jazz Comets Tour in Sweden
31.10.–6.11.2022 Varre Vartiainen Almost standards Live! – Train Tour
14.–20.11.2022 Mirja Mäkelä Trio – Co-production Tour
Carbon footprint is also measured on the following Jazz Finland’s regular tours:
9.–25.9.2022 Jussi Fredriksson Trio
10.–23.10.2022 Max Zenger Globus
17.–28.11.2022 Finnish-French “Free Voices & Sounds” Co-production: Pohjola Tikkanen Darrifourcq (FIN-FRA) & Darrifourcq Hermia Ceccaldi (BEL-FRA)
Jazz Finland’s essential form of operation is national touring. The annual touring activities enable approximately 100 concerts in 40 different locations all over Finland. The concerts mainly take place in Jazz Finland’s member organizations. Four of the tours are in-house productions of Jazz Finland, and five are produced in co-operation with external producers.
www.jazzfinland.fi / www.facebook.com/suomenjazzliitto / www.instagram.com/suomenjazzliitto
Inquiries about Sole Azul: Hei Hei Media, press@heihei.fi
Inquiries about the tour: Producer Sheri Toivomäki, sheri.toivomaki@jazzfinland.fi
Inquiries about the Carbon-neutral Tour Model Project: Coordinator Raisa Siivola, raisa.siivola@jazzfinland.fi
Inquiries about Jazz Finland: Executive Director Maria Silvennoinen, maria.silvennoinen@jazzfinland.f