Katja Toivola

Katja Aili Maria Toivola (born October 27, 1975, Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish ex-patriate musician living in New Orleans. Her instrument is the trombone. She is the first female wind instrument player to play regularly in New Orleans's Preservation Hall.[1] She also plays the bass drum, and she also works as a graphic designer and photographer.[2]

Katja Toivola
Born (1975-10-27) October 27, 1975
Helsinki, Finland
GenresJazz,
Occupation(s)trombonist
InstrumentsTrombone, bass drum
Years active1997 – present
Associated actsSpirit of New Orleans
New Orleans Helsinki Connection
Leroy Jones
Website

Early life

Toivola grew up in Helsinki and attended the Lycée franco-finlandais d'Helsinki, and graduated from its high school in 1994. After that she studied Romance philology and ethnomusicology at the University of Helsinki. She wrote her master's thesis on the ReBirth Brass Band of New Orleans and received a grant for a field trip from the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 2003. The title of the thesis was Feel Like Funkin’ It Up — A Study on the New Orleans Jazz Band called ReBirth Brass Band.[3][4][5] Toivola graduated from the university in 2005.[3]

Toivola played the piano from the age four on, but she never was excited about that instrument or the material she had to play. “To the disappointment of my teacher, I could never get excited about the theory behind the piano playing, but the music itself had the effect on me that with guts I learned the pieces by heart, slowly but surely.”[6]

Toivola discovered jazz in the early 1990s, when he mother took her to a jazz festival.[6]

For some reason my mother got the idea of taking me to the Classic Jazz Festival [in Helsinki] in 1991, to its concerts and jam sessions. I was struck by traditional jazz there, and I’ve never been able to shake it off since then. I feel that jazz is my thing.

After this, she would listen to jazz music, but she did not play it. For some time she had an alto saxophone, but she was not destined to play it for long:

In fact I first played the alto saxophone, as I liked its sound and its feel. After that I dreamed about either the trumpet or the trombone. I got the impetus to play the trombone, when I was at a music camp at Otava folk high school, and Ilkka Vento was kind enough to lend me his instrument. When I was able to produce a sound with it, I decided to go on and learn to play it.

Career as a musician

Even at a young age, Toivola knew some musicians and was able to join a band in Helsinki. Then she met some musicians from New Orleans, visiting Helsinki, and they encouraged her to visit their city. When she got there, she went around with her trombone and was given a chance to jam and to get to know the music circles there.[7]

The jamming culture in New Orleans is different from that of Finland. When the musicians here see that you have an instrument, you can usually get to play in at least one song. If you suck, that’s it then. But if you can play, you can go on playing. — — I carried my trombone around and was given invitations to play.

Toivola visited New Orleans for the first time in 1995, and she has lived there since 2004. She found her husband, trumpet player Leroy Jones there, and they have been a couple since 1997 and married since 2016.

In the early days Toivola and Jones experienced a setback, when hurricane Katrina hit the city. The damage that ensued was caused not so much by the hurricane itself but by the fact that the levees built to protect the city failed one after another.[8] Water rose in the flat Toivola and Jones had rented to about four feet, which meant that almost all of their possessions were destroyed. However, the place was cleaned up, and the things that were ruined were thrown away. Luckily the music scene quickly picked up, and they started to get invitation to play gigs. Musicians were the first people to return to the city after the hurricane.[9] Toivola later appeared in the American television drama series Treme, during its second season in episode eight, entitled Can I Change My Mind?[10] Nowadays one of Toivola's routines is to play a Friday night gig at the Preservation Hall in her husband's band. She visits Finland a couple of times a year, and then she plays in the bands Spirit of New Orleans (SONO) and New Orleans Helsinki Connection. SONO has also played abroad, e.g. in Fiji and New Zealand, as well as in the most important jazz festivals in Europe and Scandinavia. They have also released three albums.[9] New Orleans Helsinki Connection has played twice on New Orleans's JazzFest.[11]

Research
  • “New Orleansin brass band -musiikin suosion kasvu 1960-luvulta tähän päivään.” (‘The growth of the popularity of New Orleans brass band music from the 1960s to the present.’) Seminar paper in ethnomusicology. (In Finnish.)[5]
  • “Rebirth Brass Bandin Do whatcha wanna -kappaleen rakenneanalyysi.” 2002. (‘A structural analysis of the song Do whatcha wanna by Rebirth Brass Band.’) Seminar paper in ethnomusicology. (In Finnish.)[5]
  • Feel like funkin’ it up: tutkielma New Orleansin jazzia soittavasta Rebirth Brass Bandistä. 2003. (‘Feel like funkin’ it up: A Study on the New Orleansin Jazz Band Rebirth Brass Band’.) (In Finnish.) A master's thesis in ethonomusicology.)[5] Pdf version the e-thesis –service of Helsinki University

Discography

Spirit of New Orleans
  • 2002 — Bogalusa Strut (SONO-1), featuring Leroy Jones & Susanna Mesiä
  • 2006 — Some Of These Days, featuring Leroy Jones & Eeppi Ursin (SONOP-8464)
  • 2009 — Mahogany Hall Stomp (SONOP 1650), featuring Eeppi Ursin, Leroy Jones & Mari Watanabe

New Orleans Helsinki Connection
  • 2004 — New Orleans Helsinki Connection: At Last (NOHC-242)
  • 2012 — New Orleans Helsinki Connection: Paradise On Earth (SONOP 0714)

Other releases
  • 1997 — Riverside Rascals: Riverside Rascals featuring Tricia Boutté (RR 997)
  • 2004 — Susanna Mesiä: Susanna Mesiä trad
  • 2005 — Leroy Jones, New Orleans Brass Band Music: Memories Of The Fairview & Hurricane Band (LJCD-4221), as a visiting soloist
  • 2008 — Original Hurricane Brass Band: We Shall Not Be Moved (compilation)
  • 2008 & 2009 — Leroy Jones & Katja Toivola: Leroy Jones & Katja Toivola (SONOP 052008 & 9352), compilation
  • 2012 — Original Hurricane Brass Band: We Shall Not Be Moved (LJCD 0512)
  • 2012 — Leroy Jones: Go To The Mardi Gras (LJCD 0212)
gollark: Apparently I have 107 tabs open now. I should really do something about this.
gollark: I mean, IIRC they've also at times somehow dumped people into "transporter buffer" storage.
gollark: We definitely, at least, live in a time you could consider more *interesting* than previous ones.
gollark: It's not like they can make a news article titled "Many Things Are Gradually Improving!"
gollark: Hmm, I can't actually seem to find anything *positive* on the front page of the BBC news website.

References
  1. Suikkanen, Päivi (2016-06-15). "Tosi tarina: Pasuunarakkautta" [‘A true story: Trombone love’] (in Finnish). Yle. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  2. "Spirit Of New Orleans Productions". Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  3. "Katja Toivola - Trombone". spiritofneworleans.com. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  4. Toivola, Katja. "Katja Toivola in LinkedIn". Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  5. "Feel like funkin' it up: tutkielma New Orleansin jazzia soittavasta Rebirth Brass Bandistä". Helka database. University of Helsinki. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  6. "Yksi vintiöistä — Katja Toivola" [‘One of the rascals — Katja Toivola’]. Jazzrytmit. 97 (9). Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  7. = Nurmio, Satu (2013-08-14). "Rakkaus jazziin kuljetti suomalaispasunistin New Orleansin mestareiden seuraan" [‘Love for Jazz to a Finnish trombone player to New Orleans to join the masters of Jazz’] (in Finnish). YLE. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  8. Saari, Miia (2013). "Katja Toivola: "Elän unelmaani New Orleansissa"" [‘Katja Toivola: I’m living up my dream in New Orleans’]. Anna (May 6).
  9. "Pasunisti Katja Toivolan Helsinki ja New Orleans" [‘Trombone player Katja Toivola’s Helsinki and New Orleans’]. Jazzrytmit (in Finnish). 2013-07-12. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  10. "Suomalainen soittaa pasuunaa amerikkalaisten suosikkisarjassa" [‘A Finn plays the trombone in an American hit series’]. Iltasanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma. 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2017-11-26.
  11. Nordenstreng, Markus (4 May 2015). "Rytmimusiikin karnevaali. New Orleansin JazzFestillä kuuluu kaupungin rikas musiikillinen perintö, mutta myös musiikkia kaikkialta maailmasta" [‘A carnival of rhythm music. The rich history of the city is heard on New Orleans’s JazzFest, but also music from all over the world’]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Sanoma. pp. B 1–2.
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