VILNIUS MAMA JAZZ 2026 | Bill Laurance (UK) | Timo Lassy Trio (FIN)

Bill Laurance

Bill Laurance – piano

British pianist Bill Laurance, a five-time Grammy Award winner, has built a career that uniquely blends musical genres that would seem to be completely at odds with one another. Originally trained as a classical pianist, Laurance has for many years demonstrated his unique creativity and improvisational skills as the founder of the band Snarky Puppy.

While studying at the University of Leeds, he specialized in classical composition, delving into jazz, funk, and drum ’n’ bass alongside classical music. Since then, he has refined the melodic direction and intense improvisational skills of this approach, developing a distinctive personal style that incorporates elements of English classical music, electronic music, and jazz-rock, as well as raw contemporary rhythms.

In the early 2000s, the twenty-year-old Laurance was trying to make a living on the Leeds music scene when he landed an unremarkable but timely gig with the young Michael League in singer Michael Solomon Williams’s band. During a series of concerts in the north of England, he struck up a friendship with League, who was just looking for a new pianist, and League invited Laurance to the U.S. to record Snarky Puppy’s debut album, The Only Constant, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Since then, Laurance has recorded albums and performed with such renowned artists as David Crosby, Morcheeba, Salif Keita, Terence Blanchard, Susana Baca, Lalah Hathaway, Laura Mvula, Jacob Collier, Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke, Carlos Malta, The Metropole Orchestra, and the WDR Big Band, among others.

Timo Lassy Trio

Timo Lassy – sax
Jaakko Lukkarinen – bass
Ville Herrala – dr

Those familiar with the Helsinki jazz scene at the turn of the millennium may remember first hearing Timo Lassy with U-Street All Stars on the Blue Note label, or perhaps with The Five Corners Quintet, a jazz project led by the Nuspirit Helsinki collective, that morphed into a live band setting stages on fire the world over.

In 2007, Lassy released his debut album, The Soul & Jazz Of Timo Lassy, on Helsinki’s lauded Ricky-Tick Records, the label also behind The Five Corners Quintet. This album, along with the lead single “African Rumble“ quickly established Lassy as a solo artist. It was essentially club music, played in sets and on radio shows by artists such as Gilles Peterson, Paul Murphy, Jazzanova, and Motor City Drum Ensemble, among others. But Lassy doesn’t create “just” club sounds. This wasn’t “nujazz”, but the real deal, featuring some of Finland’s best young musicians circulating in and out of his band formations, and the compositions that went beyond their club functionality. Music is 3D, not tied to a specific era. Lassy’s setup was rooted in the music he loves and calls home: mid-’60s-styled soul jazz with a touch of boogaloo.

More albums followed, the band took shape. José James featured on Round Two (2009, Ricky-Tick Records). The Timo Lassy Band became became a beyond solid live act, captivating audiences and throwing them into a frenzy with their gritty gigs. Timo on tenor saxophone, Georgios Kontrafouris on piano/wurlitzer, Antti Lötjönen on double bass, Teppo Mäkynen on drums, and Abdissa “Mamba” Assefa on percussion. This is the “classic lineup” that has sold out venues such as the 1,500-seat “Huvila” festival tent in Helsinki and the Savoy Theater in his hometown of Helsinki, and toured the world over.

Lassy’s album Moves was awarded the Jazz Album of the Year with the EMMA Prize in Finland.The Finnish Jazz Federation awarded its main accolade ”Yrjö” to Lassy, and Gilles Peterson shortlisted “Timo Lassy & Teppo Mäkynen” for his Worldwide Awards the Jazz Album of the Year in 2020.

The Vilnius Mama Jazz audience first saw this Finnish musician in 2006, when he performed with the group, The Five Corners Quintet.

This time, Lassy is coming to Vilnius with a trio: bassist Jaakko Lukkarinen and drummer Ville Herrala.