Harmonist Helge Tallqvist has always performed and recorded “straight from the heart” without any commercial goals, as playing has not been an industry.
”Tacktacktack, ”praised the teacher at the Swedish co-educational school in Oulunkylä and called Helge Tallqvistia return to their place already. The teenage boy, who was passionate about playing football, knew from that stand that he would get that familiar viton as the song number.
“I considered myself a hopelessly musical and still avoid presenting myself as a musician,” says Tallqvist now, more than fifty years later.
A teacher called a “cottage” might be amazed at how far a gifted student has come in with persevering practice. Tallqvist has become a blues musician and harmonica player who has made ten albums of his own, who, in addition to everything else, is the European elite in the African-American genre he loves.
“It’s pretty easy, because there are so few of us compared to guitarists, for example,” he belittles in his typical way.
Tallqvistin the journey to become a first-class master has been special, as he did not begin targeted play until he was 30 years old, in 1982.
He made the decision in Los Angeles, where he had traveled with friends on a hopeful trip to meet blues musicians.
One of them was admired by Tallqvist George “Harmonica” Smitha sixties harmonica who performed and recorded with legends.
“The days I spent with him were so impressive that I decided to continue training harder, to reach the next level. Maybe I could really perform someday. ”
Until then, Tallqvist had thought of himself only as an amateur whose enthusiasm for playing the harmonica had finally ignited Pepe Ahlqvist. “I first heard Pepe at a concert in 1978 and thought it couldn’t be true. No Finn can play that well. ”
Blues Tallqvist, who grew up in Käpylä, was already familiar with it. Born in 1952, she belongs to the generation whose most sensitive teenage years were blues in Finland for a while, thanks to English role models.
Tallqvist also played them to inspire the guitar with their friends from the Käpylän Pallo club and football. But he never imagined anything more about music.
“My big brother, who studied at Hanken, gave the books he underlined and said he would apply too.”
Tallqvist applied for, graduated in 1977 with a degree in economics and worked in the advertising industry until his retirement – most recently as a media designer and client manager at the media office in Dagmar, where he started in 1981.
Dagmar’s years also saw his personification as a performing harmonica player. He made his first recordings in 1984, finally releasing his first album in 1995.
“It was a busy time: an advertising man during the day, a husband and father in the evening, a blues man at night,” sums up Tallqvist, whose best training space has always been a home sauna in Söderkulla, Sipoo. The harmonica, which has been misleadingly named in Finland, is an instrument whose holistic management requires decades of practice.
“The harmonica requires good breathing technique and good abdominal muscles, as well as good control of the throat and tongue. But technology is not everything: without feeling, the sound remains calcareous. ”
The best place in Tallqvist’s kitchen is a picture of Gyan Dookie & Telecaster Combo, of which Tallqvist made his first recordings in 1984.
Tallqvist initially thinks that the world of advertising and the world of blues have not intersected in his life. After all, he has always performed and recorded “straight from the heart” without commercial goals, as playing has not been an industry. But at the end of the interview, he ends up with other thoughts.
“The experience I gained as a leader of big projects has definitely helped in music. After all, I am a leader in my bands who designs and negotiates, markets, sells and produces. ”
Tallqvist also thinks that the experience in the advertising industry has helped to design the blues band’s brand when it comes to thinking about musical and even a bit of outdoor music.
“It’s ultimately a matter of trust that the audience and the organizer get what is promised. And happy a little more, ”Tallqvist defines.
He has made the Finnish blues brand a little more equal. The singers of her bands have been women for the last ten years, with three of whom she has also made an album.
“It’s all about the skills here: they’re great, language-skilled interpreters who know and feel what they’re singing about.”
Helge Tallqvist
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Born in 1952 in Helsinki.
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Diploma in Economics, Swedish School of Business 1977.
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Media designer and client manager at the media office in Dagmar in 1981–1995 and 2002–2013. In between the advertising agencies Kaisaniemi Dynamo and Incognito.
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Harmonist, performing the blues in public since 1980.
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First recordings in 1984 with Gyan Dookie & Telecaster Combo. First own album Hitsville Hop 1995. Ten own albums.
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Performed with his bands in twelve countries, including the United States.
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He played football in Käpylä’s ball from the age of 7 to the age of 30 and was the coach of the junior team of the club for a few years.
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Lives in Sipoo. Two adults and two school-age children from two marriages, two grandchildren.
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Turns 70 on Wednesday, February 23rd.
Growing up in Käpylä, Helge Tallqvist played for a long time in Käpylän Pallo. “If the development continues on favorable terms, our football can be expected to miss the long-awaited mortality in a few years ‘time,” his chances were assessed at Helsingin Sanomat in July 1968. A year earlier, Tallqvist had been selected to the Finnish boys’ national team.
In August 1982, Helge Tallqvist (third left) made a three-week pilgrimage to California, where she met, among others, her role model, harmonica George “Harmonica” Smith (center). Smith, who lived in Watts and Los Angeles with his family, presented his car to a Finnish party in the backyard of his house, which included Micu Finér (right) and Tallqvist’s mentor, blues musician Pepe Ahlqvist. On the left is Smith’s wife Christine Smith and the couple’s daughter. George Smith, who suffered from heart problems, died a year after the appointment at the age of 59.
The singers of the harpist Helge Tallqvist’s (right) blues bands have been women for the last ten years. In October 2019, three of them performed at the Helsinki Malmitalo concert: Queen Fatima, Charlotta Curves and Emilia Sisco (center). Jonne Kulluvaara (left), Juha Litmanen and Topi Karvonen played in the Tallqvist band.
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