Sota-ajan Topi Kärkeä Kaliforniassa

27.7.2011 Raimo Salo Kuva: Irma Mäkelä

Tenoriluutnantti Raimo Salo ja harmonikkataiteilija Teijo Rekonen matkustavat elokuussa konsertoimaan San Diegoon. Ohjelmistossa on Toivo Kärjen rintamalla säveltämää musiikkia.

Säveltäjä Toivo Kärki (1915-1992) taisteli tykistöupseerina kahdessa sodassa Neuvostoliittoa vastaan vuosina 1939-1944. Sotatoimien ohessa tykistön luutnantti Kärki ehti säveltää noin 100 kappaletta "siellä jossakin" ilman soitinta. Vain osa niistä levytettiin sota-aikana.

Raimo Salo on ollut jo pitkään ollut kiinnostunut tästä ainutlaatuisesta materiaalista ja esittänyt sitä eri yhteyksissä. Salon juuri ilmestyneellä levyllä Olit  Karjala kaunein maa on sitä edustava valikoima; tunnettuja menestyskappaleita, harvinaisuuksia ja vasta äskettäin ensiesityksen saaneita.

Voitettuaan kansainvälisen Rytmi-lehden sävellyskilpailun 1939 kappaleella Things happen that way Toivo Kärki haaveili muuusikon urasta Amerikassa, mutta sota päätti toisin.

Nyt Toivo Kärjen voittokappale ja sota-ajan sävellykset viedään Salon ja harmonikkataiteilija Teijo Rekosen tulkitsemina 70 vuoden kuluttua Kalifornian San Diegoon Finnfest 2011-festivaaleille

Konserttimatkaa tukee Keski-Suomen liitto ja Kärjen perikunta. Duolle on varattu neljä konserttia, joissa he esittelevät keskisuomalaista musiikkiosaamista, kertovat sanoin ja sävelin Keski-Suomesta ja tapaavat täältä lähtöisin olevia ihmisiä.

Finnfest-2011 Event Calendar;                 https://www.finnfest2011.com/events-calendar/2011-08-10


Kalervo Kärki's greetings to Finnfest 2011-festival

In the spring of 1939 Toivo Kärki was a twentythree-year-old ambitious musician and composer, mainly interested in American-style swing music. He took part in an international composing contest of the British magazine Rhythm, and out of about five hundred participants he won the contest with a very modern slow-fox “Things happen that way”. Spurred by the success he planned to go to America to test the strength of his wings, but history decided otherwise: The Second world war broke out in September. In November the Soviet Union attacked, and Finland had to fight for its independence in the Winter war. As a newly schooled artillery officer Kärki was at once commanded to the fore front.

The following five years Kärki spent in the wilderness “at the border of a swamp”, as he said. Between the frequent battles he found time to compose and arrange music, without an instrument. He sent the compositions to the home front to his lyric makers, and more than a hundred songs were completed during the war years while fulfilling his duty as a soldier - this is probably the world record. Some of the songs were recorded, but about a third were not, only left to Kärki’s archives.

During the long war Kärki’s musical focus shifted from jazzy foxtrots to tangos, waltzes and jenkas, and in the following years he achieved great national success with an astonishing number of songs, many of them durable, well-known classics.

Recently a major effort has been made to resurrect Kärki’s war-time rare or never-before heard treasures in a project called “On elon retki näin” (Such is the run of life 2010). One of the activists and singers has been Raimo Salo, and the accompanying orchestra has been the Air Force Big Band.

But Kärki, who died in 1992, never visited America, the dreamland of his youth. The songs of this concert will bring his message here, after seventy years.

Very warm regards to you from Finland from Kalervo Kärki, Toivo Kärki’s son (born in 1945) and the collector and researcher of his work.

Kalervo Kärki
2011