Tasavallan Presidentti (in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

'' President of the Republic'') is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist

Jukka Tolonen Jukka Jorma Tolonen (born 16 April 1952) is a Finnish jazz guitarist.Lönnqvist, Niclas.Jukka Tolonen är musikern av Guds nåde (in Swedish), Hufvudstadsbladet, August 3, 2018. Tolonen became famous as guitarist for the progressive rock band T ...

and drummer Vesa Aaltonen. Other founder members were Måns Groundstroem (bass) and Frank Robson (vocals), previously of

Blues Section Blues Section are a Finnish rock music group. They started in 1967, formed around the vocalist Jim Pembroke, a British expatriate songwriter now living in Finland. The other members of the band were Eero Koivistoinen (saxophone), Ronnie Österbe ...

Juhani Aaltonen Juhani Aaltonen (born December 12, 1935) is a Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist. Born in Kouvola, Finland, he studied at Sibelius Academy and Berklee College of Music. He began playing professionally at the end of the 1950s. He played in a ...

(saxophone/flute) had earlier played in Soulset; he was replaced in 1970 by Pekka Pöyry. Eero Raittinen replaced Robson as a vocalist in 1972, the same year as the album '' Lambertland'' was released in UK. The album was a tight fusion of jazz and folk rock with highly inventive and imaginative lyrics which charted at the number 7 position in Finland. '' Milky Way Moses'' reached number 12 in Finland in 1974. The band toured in continental Europe and the United Kingdom in 1973 and 1974, but Pöyry, stricken with bouts of manic depression, was occasionally replaced with keyboardist Esa Kotilainen on live dates. Tasavallan Presidentti disbanded in 1974, then reunited from 2005 to 2006 with original saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen, as Pöyry had committed suicide in 1980. The band celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with two concerts in December 2019 in Helsinki and Tampere.Tasavallan Presidentti täyttää 50 vuotta – asiaa juhlistetaan konserteilla ja ainutlaatuisella livealbumilla.
''Soundi'', 7 October 2019 (in Finnish).

Discography

Albums

* ''Tasavallan Presidentti'' (1969) * Pekka Streng with Tasavallan Presidentti: ''Magneettimiehen kuolema'' (1970) * ''Tasavallan Presidentti (II)'' (1971) * '' Lambertland'' (1972) * '' Milky Way Moses'' (1974) * ''Classics'' (compilation) (1990) * ''Tasavallan Presidentti'' (2000) * ''Still Struggling for Freedom'' (live) (2001) * ''Tasavallan Presidentti Six'' (2005, EP) * ''Six Complete'' (2006) * ''Pop-Liisa 1'' (2016)

Singles

* ''Time Alone with You'' / ''Obsolete Machine'' (1969) * ''Solitary'' / ''Deep Thinker'' (1970) *

Kirka Babitzin Kirill "Kirka" Babitzin (22 September 1950 – 31 January 2007) was one of the most commercially successful Finnish musicians. His career spanned from the late 1960s until his death in 2007. Previously associated with Ilkka Lipsanen's The Islan ...

& Tasavallan Presidentti: ''Saat kaiken / Kaukainen valo'' (1970) * ''Sisältäni portin löysin / Selvä näkijä'' (1972)

Band members

* Frank Robson –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(1969–1972, 1983-) * Eero Raittinen –

(1972–1974, 1995, 2000) *

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(1969–1970, 1983-) * Pekka Pöyry –

(1970–1974) *

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Esa Kotilainen , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

–

(1974, 1990, 1995) * Måns Groundstroem – bass (1969–1972, 1983–2002) * Heikki Virtanen – bass (1973–1974, 2002-) * Vesa Aaltonen –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

External links

Unofficial fan site
{{Finland-band-stub Finnish progressive rock groups Musical groups established in 1969