AHVENLAHTI, OLLI & UMO JAZZ ORCHESTRA - Seawinds - The Complete Yle Studio Recordings (Sealed) (CD)

In many countries, state-owned radio companies took a significant role in recording and broadcasting music that did not interest commercial firms. This was also the case in Finland. Even though Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio, known as Yle, was not actually a state corporation but a license-based joint-stock company, it was a public service that had a total monopoly on the Finnish radio waves. Yleisradio had earlierly had its own dance and jazz orchestras but by the mid-1970s they were gone and the company began to rely on external productions. This was good news for UMO which at the time was an association-based organisation (it would not reach full public support until the mid-1980s). In order to survive, UMO created and maintained a strong connection with Yle which provided financial funding for the group. In response, Yle had a permission to record and broadcast UMO material. Everyone was happy: Yle appeared as patron of arts. UMO was able to develop its musical adventures. Jazz aficionados were served with new big band music. The arrangement had only one weakness. Once the performance had been recorded, the original copy of the tape, kantanauha, literally oot tape', was not used to produce other copies. Yle had permanent rights for broadcasting the recordings (most of which were studio takes), but in reality the master tapes remained unused in the company's archives.