Eero Koivistoinen

Last updated
Eerokoivistoinen Eerokoivistoinen.jpg
Eerokoivistoinen

Eero Koivistoinen (born 13 January 1946, in Helsinki) is a Finnish jazz musician and saxophone player, who started his career in the mid-1960s. Koivistoinen has worked as a musician, composer, arranger, conductor, producer and educator. He first heard jazz from the records his sailor brother had brought in from his travels. As a youngster Koivistoinen studied classical violin, saxophone and also composition at the Sibelius Academy, and later jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston. His first line-up featured the drummer Edward Vesala and bassist Pekka Sarmanto. Koivistoinen was also a member of the seminal Finnish rock band Blues Section in the years 1967 and 1968. In 1968 he released his first solo album, a "literary record" called Valtakunta which featured songs composed to the texts of such poets as Pentti Saarikoski, Jarkko Laine, Tuomas Anhava and Hannu Mäkelä; interpreted by the vocalists Vesa-Matti Loiri, Eero Raittinen and Seija Simola. Eero Koivistoinen's later solo albums such as Wahoo (1972) enjoy a considerable international reputation. His hip hop-influenced 2006 album X-Ray features such people as the vocalists Charles Salter and Bina Nkwazi, DJ LBJ (also known as Jonas Verwijnen) and the rap artist Redrama (also known as Lasse Mellberg).

Contents

Eero Koivistoinen was one of the founder members of the UMO Jazz Orchestra where he played from 1975 to 1990 and worked as its artistic director from 1996 to 1998. He has also composed music for radio and theatre. Koivistoinen has received the Yrjö prize of the Finnish Jazz Association in 1967, his quartet won the band competition at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1969, and Koivistoinen also won in 1981 the prize for the best arrangement with his piece "Ultima Thule" at the Nordring competition of European broadcasting companies, held in Jersey.

Discography

With Ted Curson

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharoah Sanders</span> American jazz saxophonist (1940–2022)

Pharoah Sanders was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane's groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. He released over thirty albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with vocalist Leon Thomas and pianist Alice Coltrane, among many others. Fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Johnson (jazz musician)</span> American musician (1941–2021)

Howard Lewis Johnson was an American jazz musician, known mainly for his work on tuba and baritone saxophone, although he also played the bass clarinet, trumpet, and other reed instruments. He is known to have expanded the tuba’s known capacities in jazz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thad Jones</span> American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".

Blossom Toes were a British psychedelic pop band active between 1966 and 1970. Initially known as The Ingoes, they were renamed and signed to the Marmalade record label of manager Giorgio Gomelsky. The original line-up comprised Brian Godding, Jim Cregan, Brian Belshaw, and Kevin Westlake (born Kevin Patrick Westlake, 5 March 1947, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland.

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 Österberg (drums), Hasse Walli (guitar), and Måns Groundstroem (bass). Their influences came above all from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Jimi Hendrix, who had played a gig in Helsinki in May 1967. One can also hear in Pembroke's British-flavoured song-writing some echoes from The Beatles and The Kinks. Blues Section released a self-titled album late 1967 on Helsinki's Love Records. In 1968 Groundstroem and Pembroke left the band, being replaced by Pekka Sarmanto and Frank Robson, respectively. Also Koivistoinen would leave the band during the same year, and by the end of 1968 Blues Section was over. The Blues Section members would continue in such acclaimed progressive rock bands as Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti. Eero Koivistoinen was to become an internationally acclaimed jazz musician, and Hasse Walli would discover world music, playing in such bands as Piirpauke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasse Walli</span> Finnish musician

Hannes Mikael Waldemar "Hasse" Walli was born on 10 February 1948 in Helsinki. His father Aarno Walli was a musician and bandleader, his mother Anne-Marie Strandberg a singer. Hasse Walli was about ten years old when he started playing drums. He drummed in various bands in early 1960s such as The Islanders, The Electric Five and Nameless. Gradually Walli switched from drums to electric guitar. After Nameless had split, Walli started as a solo guitarist in The Typhoons. The Typhoons split when its members had to join the obligatory military service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedro Iturralde</span> Spanish musician (1929–2020)

Pedro Iturralde Ochoa was a Spanish saxophonist, saxophone teacher and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jukka Tolonen</span> Finnish jazz guitarist

Jukka Jorma Tolonen is a Finnish jazz guitarist. Tolonen became famous as guitarist for the progressive rock band Tasavallan Presidentti.

Eero is an Estonian and Finnish masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juhani Aaltonen</span> Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist

Juhani Aaltonen is a Finnish jazz saxophonist and flautist.

<i>Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and UMO</i> 1977 studio album by UMO featuring Thad Jones and Mel Lewis

Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and UMO is a big band jazz recording by UMO with guest bandleaders / performers Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. It was recorded in Helsinki in 1977 and was nominated for a 1979 Grammy award in the "Best Jazz Instrumental Performance - Big Band" category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pekka Sarmanto</span> Finnish musician

Pekka Eerik Juhani Sarmanto is a Finnish jazz bassist. Heikki Sarmanto is Pekka's brother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarmo Savolainen</span> Finnish jazz pianist and composer

Jarmo Savolainen was a Finnish jazz pianist and composer. He was born in Iisalmi, Eastern Finland, and first studied classical piano. He later turned his attention to jazz and studied at Berklee College of Music.

Ultima Thule primarily refers to:

Svart Records is a Finnish independent record company focused on heavy metal music, especially doom metal. It concentrates mostly on releasing LP reissues of albums previously unavailable on vinyl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pekka Pöyry</span> Musical artist

Pekka Juhani Pöyry was a Finnish jazz and rock saxophonist and flutist. He was part of the Pekka Pöyry Quartet and Quintet.

UMO Jazz Orchestra is a Finnish big band. It was founded in 1975 by jazz musicians Heikki Sarmanto and Esko Linnavalli.

Harry Kaj Olof Backlund was a Finnish jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, bandleader, theorist, and one of the founders of the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory and the Jazz Department of Sibelius Academy. He was also one of the founding members of UMO Jazz Orchestra. He was a contemporary music education pioneer in Finland and a long-running senior music theory teacher in Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexi Tuomarila</span> Finnish jazz pianist and composer (born 1974)

Alexi Tuomarila is a Finnish jazz pianist and composer.

Kari Ikonen is a Finnish pianist, Moog player, and composer. He received the Yrjö-award from Jazz Finland in 2013, as the Finnish Jazz Musician of the Year.

References