Kari Kääriäinen

At the age of ten it suddenly dawned to me that I wanted to play an instrument of some kind. My father took me to the local marching band, where I got to play trumpet and later french horn. On my big brother's footsteps I also learned to play drums as he and his friends used to play rock'n'roll in the garage. After a couple of years, I took over a more formal music education at the music school in Hyvinkää. After mixed pursuits in classical realm I finally found myself studying classical double bass at Sibelius Academy in 1986.

I knew absolutely nothing about folk music until 1987 when I fell in love with Kristiina Ilmonen, then second year student at the Folk Music Department. Rapidly a whole new world of music unfolded to me forcing me to approach music very differently than what I was used to. I started playing folk music on double bass. Soon I discovered the new angle that folk music would bring to my favourite but long neglected instrument, drums, and I started experimenting on ethnic drums such as Senegalese sabars, some latin percussion and finally the West African djembe instrument family. In 1990 I decided to give up classical music education and took my entrance exam to the Folk Music Department and was accepted as a student with percussion as my main subject.

During my studying years I played Finnish folk music in folk dance and music group Kiperä and in a large folk opera production "Velho" opera trilogy in Lappland among other ensembles.

My first teacher on djembe was Mrs. Outi Kallinen, a talented Finnish dancer, who is also responsible for introducing me to accompanying African dance. My other teachers on djembe have been Ville Hukkinen, Ousmane Sylla (Guinea), Lamine Dibo Camara (Guinea), Amara Kante (Guinea), Pascal Ryter (France), Ahti Isomäki and Sanou Sungalo (Burkina Faso).

My main ambition in studying djembe music is to gain deeper understanding of what makes that music sound so fascinating and exotic to the western listener and how a tradition that is so deeply built in to the African culture can enrich our musical lives. So far the best opportunity to explore these ideas has been my percussion ensemble Son la la X.

I completed my Master of Music degree in 1999.