Don Johnson Big Band is an

alternative hip hop Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising " hip hop groups that refuse to confor ...

group from

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Their music blends influences from a variety of genres such as

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and hip hop. Don Johnson Big Band Christmas show 2019 group pose picture

History

The name "Don Johnson Big Band" comes from the actor

Don Johnson Donnie Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor, producer and singer. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series ''Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Em ...

in the series ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

''. The band had to come up with a name to reserve a place for training.

Members

Don Johnson Big Band consists of four people:

Tommy Lindgren Tommy Lindgren (born 1977Lehti, AkiTommy Lindgren - räppiä ja kansalaisaktivismia kahvin voimalla raitis.fi 25 January 2011. Accessed on 10 January 2021.) is a Finland, Finnish singer-songwriter best known as the vocalist of the band Don Johnson ...

(vocals), Kari Saarilahti (guitar), Johannes Laiho (keyboards) and Pekka Mikkonen (horns). Despite their name, they are not a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

, but instead a mix between

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, hip hop,

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

. Regular featuring artists on DJBB gigs and albums are Juuso Hannukainen (percussion), Tero Rantanen (percussion), Emma Salokoski (vocals), and Teppo Mäkynen (turntables).

Discography

Albums

*''

Support de Microphones ''Support de Microphones'' is the debut album of Finnish hip hop group Don Johnson Big Band. With sales of 10,000 copies, the album is considered to be the best selling self-published album in Finland. Initially the album was also self-distribute ...

'' (2000) *''

Breaking Daylight ''Breaking Daylight'' is the second album by Finnish hip hop group Don Johnson Big Band. It topped the Finnish album charts and has been certified Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a d ...

'' (2003) *''Don Johnson Big Band'' (2006) *''Records Are Forever'' (2009) *''Fiesta'' (2012) *''Physical Digital'' (2018) *''Digital Physical'' (2022)

Singles

Trivia

*Lindgren, Saarilahti and Laiho are old high school friends. Mikkonen joined in later. *Their 2009 album includes a song dedicated to

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight- ...

, titled Running Man.

References

External links

The Official Don Johnson Big Band Website

The Official Don Johnson Big Band Webshop (Worldwide)

The Official Microsite of "Breaking Daylight" (Album, 2003)

The Official Microsite of "Don Johnson Big Band" (Album, 2006)

The Official Microsite of "Records Are Forever" (Album, 2009)

Don Johnson Big Band on YouTube.com

Don Johnson Big Band on Twitter.com
Finnish hip hop groups Finnish electronic music groups {{Finland-band-stub