Jukka Tolonen - Hysterica (1975)

Jukka Tolonen - Hysterica, from album "Hysterica" (1975)

Jukka Tolonen was perhaps the first true Finnish guitar hero. With his virtuoso playing and his blues-jazz-classical stylistic mixture on Tasavallan Presidentti's two first albums and Wigwam's Tombstone Valentine, he became the first domestic axeman that could meet the big-world giants on their on terms, a paragon to young Finnish rockers - right down to his long hair and emaciated looks. Along with Pekka Pohjola, he was in fact one of the first rockers with some formal musical education beyond the basics. When his first, all-instrumental solo album appeared in 1971, its cover told all that was necessary: just the trademark-like title Tolonen! and Reijo Porkka's grainy, stark black-white photo of boy and his guitar in the by-now formulaic guitar-hero pose. That's exactly what the album made out of Tolonen, a trademark. His virtuoso highlight, the unaccompanied solo-guitar cadenza in the appropriately titled jazz-rocker "Ramblin", became (unfortunately perhaps) the technical yardstick by which every aspiring rock guitarist was measured. But even in retrospect, when yardsticks have been revised and yesterday's heroes dethroned several times, Tolonen! shows that its creator had more in him than just fast fingers. "Elements Earth Fire Water Air" starts with his trademark wah-inflected, twangy electric solo counterpointed by spidery runs on acoustic, piano or spinet (also played by Tolonen), but then breaks into a stentorian classical-style piano part, starts again with a sweet melancholy sax theme and slowly builds on it again, contrasting the acoustic haziness with the wah's electric growl. "Mountains" has just a shimmering acoustic guitar and a little Leslie-hazy electric to support a ravishing theme on the saxophone, an epitome of melodic beauty and tasteful arrangement. Tolonen clearly had greater ear for composition and arrangement than many of his follower would have.

But Tolonen! had deeper impact than just hoisting Jukka Tolonen on a pedestal: it was the first genuine progressive rock record to make it to number six on the national chart and was voted the Album of the Year, incredible considering it was instrumental, hardly easy to take and that rock was still looked harshly upon by many of the musical establishment. Tolonen! in part served to legitimise rock and, more importantly, showed that progressive rock had commercial viability. In its wake, the already projected solo albums by Jim Pembroke and Pekka Pohjola got the go ahead. It was, however, still a musically immature statement, as confirmed by the inclusion of "Last Night", a short, shabby excerpt from a live jam with Wigwam.

Maturity came with Summer Games two years later. With a more acoustic overall sound, more prominent influences from Indian music, and very tasteful use of horns, this album flows almost unnoticeably from pastoral acoustic lounging to serene jazz-rock where Indian tabla rhythms, Western classical influences and superbly melodic horn arrangements form a rich and perfectly balanced whole. If seventies Finnish progressive rock can be credited with an original approach, it would be this earthy, warm and slightly jazzy sound, echoes of which reverberate in most Finnish progressive records of the time, however faint sometimes (others might want to take some aspects of the Canterbury sound as a reference point).

In comparison, The Hook (the title is perhaps a barb aimed at the American record company who refused the album because it supposedly didn't have any) is highly electrified and turns toward the North. The 12-minute opener "Aurora Borealis", two bolted-together fusiony rock vamps building into impressive climaxes, is harmonically more Nordic than Indian and Esa Kotilainen's bursts of frigid synthesizer washes give it a cool, cosmic coating. The rest of the album includes Big Band jazz, classical-style piano motifs, Zappa-like rhythmic quirkiness and even an acoustic lullaby. While not as solid as Summer Games, it represents Tolonen at his most "progressive" in terms of rhythmic complexity, keyboard arrangements but also orchestrating the music for various instruments so that none really dominates. Even with Tasavallan Presidentti withering, the world seemed open for Tolonen on his own.

With Hysterica he bowed to American wishes and made a more guitar-oriented, streamlined album, but it was still not enough to record-company tastes and did not become the expected breakthrough in the States. Musically, "Silva the Cat" is Tolonen at his quirky best, and "Jimi" and "Django" serve as suitable tributes to his two different influences without becoming mere pastiches. "Windemere Avenue" became a small radiohit, but only after it had been seconded to Crossection, an American compilation containing also tracks from Tasavallan Presidentti's albums. In retrospect, however, Hysterica shows that in terms of musical power Tolonen had already peaked....www.gepr.net)