Toivola grew up in Helsinki and attended the Lycée franco-finlandais d'Helsinki, and graduated from its high school in 1994. After that she studied Romance philology and ethnomusicology at the University of Helsinki. She wrote her master's thesis on the ReBirth Brass Band of New Orleans and received a grant for a field trip from the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 2003. The title of the thesis was Feel Like Funkin’ It Up — A Study on the New Orleans Jazz Band called ReBirth Brass Band. Toivola graduated from the university in 2005. Toivola played the piano from the age four on, but she never was excited about that instrument or the material she had to play. “To the disappointment of my teacher, I could never get excited about the theory behind the piano playing, but the music itself had the effect on me that with guts I learned the pieces by heart, slowly but surely.” Toivola discovered jazz in the early 1990s, when he mother took her to a jazz festival. After this, she would listen to jazz music, but she did not play it. For some time she had an alto saxophone, but she was not destined to play it for long:
Career as a musician
Even at a young age, Toivola knew some musicians and was able to join a band in Helsinki. Then she met some musicians from New Orleans, visiting Helsinki, and they encouraged her to visit their city. When she got there, she went around with her trombone and was given a chance to jam and to get to know the music circles there. Toivola visited New Orleans for the first time in 1995, and she has lived there since 2004. She found her husband, trumpet player Leroy Jones there, and they have been a couple since 1997 and married since 2016. In the early days Toivola and Jones experienced a setback, when hurricane Katrina hit the city. The damage that ensued was caused not so much by the hurricane itself but by the fact that the levees built to protect the city failed one after another. Water rose in the flat Toivola and Jones had rented to about four feet, which meant that almost all of their possessions were destroyed. However, the place was cleaned up, and the things that were ruined were thrown away. Luckily the music scene quickly picked up, and they started to get invitation to play gigs. Musicians were the first people to return to the city after the hurricane. Toivola later appeared in the Americantelevision drama seriesTreme, during its second season in episode eight, entitled Can I Change My Mind? Nowadays one of Toivola's routines is to play a Friday night gig at the Preservation Hall in her husband's band. She visits Finland a couple of times a year, and then she plays in the bands Spirit of New Orleans and New Orleans Helsinki Connection. SONO has also played abroad, e.g. in Fiji and New Zealand, as well as in the most important jazz festivals in Europe and Scandinavia. They have also released three albums. New Orleans Helsinki Connection has played twice on New Orleans's JazzFest.
Research
“New Orleansin brass band -musiikin suosion kasvu 1960-luvulta tähän päivään.” Seminar paper in ethnomusicology.
“Rebirth Brass Bandin Do whatcha wanna -kappaleen rakenneanalyysi.” 2002. Seminar paper in ethnomusicology.
Feel like funkin’ it up: tutkielma New Orleansin jazzia soittavasta Rebirth Brass Bandistä. 2003.
