Jimi Tenor

Finnish multi-instrumentalist and producer Lassi Lehto, alias Jimi Tenor, began a musical journey in the late 1980s, marked by collaborations, groups and different styles. Born in Lahti in 1965, he learned saxophone, flute and piano, and studied for twelve years at the Finnish Institute of Music. Adopting the artist name Jimi Tenor, in reference to his childhood idol Jimmy Osmond and the tenor saxophone he plays, the musician began by recording four albums with his band, Jimi Tenor & His Shamans (1988-1992), then two more as a solo artist, before signing with Warp Records for three albums that established his international reputation: Innervisions (1997), Organism (1999) and Out of Nowhere (2000). Leading a big band for his tours, Tenor multiplies his collaborations on record with Edward Vesala, the UMO Jazz Orchestra, the Dachau Big Band, the Metropole Orkest, Flat Earh Society, Kabu Kabu, Tony Allen and Abdissa Assefa. He has also been a regular associate of Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators for fifteen years, and in 2015 founded the trio Tenors of Kalma. Under his own name, he released the albums Utopian Dream (2001), Higher Planes (2003), Beyond the Stars (2004) and ReComposed By: Jimi Tenor for Deutsche Grammophon in 2006. On his musical pilgrimage, Jimi Tenor explores electronic music as well as different facets of jazz, Ethiopian music and Afrobeat on Saxentric (2016). He continues his tireless eclectic quest with Order of Nothingness (2018), then reunites with Tony Allen for the live album OTO Live Party (2018). For Metamorpha (2020), he calls on house producer Maurice Fulton, then uses the vast palette of instruments at his disposal for Multiversum (2022), followed by Sinus Amoris (Songs from the Bay of Love) in 2025.

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