Biography

Founded in 2010 by composer/conductor Valtteri Laurell Pöyhönen, Ricky-Tick Big Band is a 17-member jazz orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. The heavy line-up of the band includes top Finnish jazz talent, trumpetists Jukka Eskola and Kalevi Louhivuori and saxophonist Linda Fredriksson amongst many others. Laurell’s compositions have their foundation in the legacy of big band legends like Duke Ellington and Lalo Schifrin, but a variety of other influences can also be heard, ranging from New Orleans marching band sounds to Ethio-jazz and far beyond. Ricky-Tick Big Band and Julkinen Sana is a collaboration between RTBB and three of Finland’s top rappers, Paleface, Redrama and Tommy Lindren. The group took its native country Finland by storm in 2013 with its critically acclaimed debut album Burnaa, which spent 17 consecutive weeks in the Finnish album chart. The follow-up album Korottaa Panoksii, released in October 2015, was an equal success among critics and audiences. It peaked at #5 on the album chart, and Helsinki’s famed Kulttuuritalo (House of Culture) was sold out twice over for the record release shows, which is rare in any genre – let alone big band jazz rap. The collab’s third album “Pidä Valot Päällä came out in 2018 and an extensive tour in Finland followed after that. In the end of 2020 Ricky-Tick Big Band & Julkinen Sana played their last shows.