Everything but rude with Finland's Trio Toykeat

The last concert in this year's LCSD Jazz Up series, featuring Finland's Trio Toykeat, is likely to be weird, but wonderful.

Judging from the choice of venue - City Hall Theatre, rather than Concert Hall - the LCSD doesn't anticipate a Kenny Garrett-level turnout. Finland isn't known for its contributions to jazz, despite a lively appreciation for the music in the Nordic countries. Sweden, Norway and Denmark have produced internationally acclaimed players, but the Finns have been less recognised by the wider world.

In many ways this is unfair. Finland holds more than 20 jazz festivals a year. Jazz education is encouraged. Helsinki has a Pop-Jazz Conservatory dedicated to training professional musicians in non-classical disciplines, and the Sibelius Academy has had a jazz department since 1983.

Finland's UMO Jazz Orchestra, one of the world's great jazz orchestral ensembles, covers an impressive range of styles, and is as much at home with the avant garde as with Ellington. It celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, but, like most European bands, is barely acknowledged in the US.

Drummer Edward Vesala was, perhaps, the leading light of Finnish jazz until his death in 1999 at the age of 54, and in the 1980s another drummer, Klaus Suonsaari, had some success with a band called Blue Train. He went on to record some strong albums in the 1990s, including 1999's With Every Breath I Take, made with pianist Geri Allen.

Pianist Jarmo Savolainen has made a name for himself in New York, but still spends much of his time in Finland and Europe - and then there's Trio Toykeat, today probably Finland's best known jazz export, particularly in Australia, where they've established a devoted following.