Masa Orpana & Ville Rauhala
Biography Masa Orpana & Ville Rauhala
Masa Orpana
Masa (Matti-Juhani) Orpana is a musician from Kangasala, Finland, born in 1973. His instruments are saxophones, clarinet, flute and guitar. Masa performs with his own band Masa Orpana Honk and is active in the Anssi Tikanmäki Orchestra and Jazzmuseo. He also composes and arranges music for his bands. Over the years, he has also played in bands such as Groovy Eyes, Olmarin Unioni, Honky Tonk Men, Jazzgangsters, One O’Clock Humph and Funky Kingston. He has also worked as a theater and studio musician and a teacher of saxophone playing and music theory.
Masa’s own style encompasses rhythm and blues and other roots music, jazz, rock and improvised music. He enjoys playing for audiences at various gigs from bars to concert halls. With different ensembles, he has performed on numerous tours, festivals and clubs in Finland, elsewhere in Europe and North America.
Masa has released six albums under his own name: Together (Alba Records 2023), Masa Orpana Honk: The Chase (Alba 2023), Honk (Alba 2018), Travelin’ Home (Alba 2014), Brothers (Alba 2008) JAHonky Tonk Man (Alba 2005). Masa has also recorded as a member of several bands such as Anssi Tikanmäki Orchestra, Groovy Eyes, Jazzmuseo and many others.
As a studio musician, Masa can be heard on albums by, for example, Pate Mustajärvi, Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukko, Wiley Cousins, Yö, Olli Lindholm, Mikko Alatalo, Suvi Teräsniska, Jonne Aaron, Tulenkantajien and Milana Misic. Masa has worked with notable artists and musicians such as Diz Watson, Tony Uter, Junior Watson, Jo’ Buddy, Ismo Haavisto and Eero Raittinen, among others.
Ville Rauhala
A native of Tampere since his early twenties, Ville Rauhala was born in the neighbouring rural municipality of Kangasala in 1976. He has taken double bass lessons at the Pirkanmaa Music Institute and studied ethnomusicology at the University of Tampere for a period of ten years at the turn of the Millennium. One of his most long-standing collaborators is saxophonist Masa Orpana, another Kangasala-based musician and a prominent figure of the North Tavastia jazz and rhythm & blues scene. The men have performed and recorded together in line-ups such as Olmarin Unioni ever since the early 1990s.
Rauhala's path to fully-fledged professional musicianship commenced in the mid-1990s in the ranks of various roots bands. Session dates and work with theater groups followed, word started to spread and gradually this versatile musician became the first-call double bass player of the entire Tampere region. Over the years, Rauhala has worked with such top Finnish singers and songwriters as Pauli Hanhiniemi, Pate Mustajärvi and Janne Laurila. In addition, he has been featured in well-received music theater productions based on the lives and times of Finnish tango and schlager icons Unto Mononen and Olavi Virta.
Ville's bold debut album Freedom – Eight Episodes came out in November 2010. This critically acclaimed disc consists of original solo bass works that chart the no-man's land in between composition and improvisation. As a composer, Rauhala is also documented on albums by saxophonist Masa Orpana (Brothers – Music of Rauhala, Tikanmäki & Vuorinen, 2010) and jazz groups like Olmarin Unioni (Olmarin Unioni, 2004 and Peaceful Means, 2005) and Rakka (Soutu, 2012 and Mykorritsan valtakunta, 2014). A most important page was turned in January 2005 as Ville Rauhala co-founded the robust free jazz band Black Motor with saxophonist Sami Sippola and drummer Simo Laihonen.
2013 saw Rauhala appear in two new line-ups featuring comrades-in-arms from Black Motor. The rejuvenated edition of Jorma Tapio & Kaski consists of Rauhala, Laihonen and saxophonist/flautist Jorma Tapio. Hannibal & Musta Moottori, on the other hand, features Rauhala, Sippola, rapper Hannibal Stark and drummer Janne Tuomi. And still in 2013, Ville Rauhala joined guitarist Raoul Björkenheim and drummer Ilmari Heikinheimo in the rough and ready improv group Raoul Björkenheim Triad.
In 2014, the bassist and composer began organizing and hosting his own "Vapaalla jalalla" evenings of improvised music at Pub Huurupiilo in Tampere. Later on in the year, following Sippola's amicable exit from Black Motor, Hannibal & Musta Moottori changed their name to Hannibal & Hot Heros. Apart from the original four-piece line-up, the band will also appear in the future as instrumental trio Hot Heros consisting of Ville Rauhala, Sami Sippola and Janne Tuomi.
