Edward Vesala (15 February 1945 – 4 December 1999), born Martti Vesala, was a Finnish

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

drummer.

Career

Born in

Mäntyharju Mäntyharju (, literally 'Pine Ridge') is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The coastline is almost . The population density ...

, he began playing jazz and rock in the 1960s, in such bands as

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 ...

and Apollo. In the 1970s, he led his own jazz groups, a quartet with Polish trumpet player

Tomasz Stańko Tomasz Ludwik Stańko (11 July 1942 – 29 July 2018) was a Polish trumpeter and composer. Stańko was associated with free jazz and the avant-garde. In 1962, Tomasz Stańko formed his first band, the Jazz Darings, with saxophonist Janusz Munia ...

and sax player

Tomasz Szukalski Tomasz Szukalski, born December 25, 1947, in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, registered by Soviet authorities January 8, 1948 – died August 2, 2012, in Piaseczno, Poland, was a Polish jazz saxophonist, composer and improviser. Szukalski worke ...

, played with Toto Blanke's Electric Circus, and recorded with Norwegian saxophonist

Jan Garbarek Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław ...

. In the 1980s and 1990s, Vesala recorded several albums of his own compositions that combined

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

, and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

with his own group Sound & Fury, an ensemble of about ten players made up mostly of Vesala's students. Prominent players in Sound and Fury included saxophonists Jorma Tapio and

Pepa Päivinen Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA) is a stochastic process algebra designed for modelling computer and communication systems introduced by Jane Hillston in the 1990s. The language extends classical process algebras such as Milner's ...

, guitarists

Raoul Björkenheim Raoul Melvin Björkenheim (born February 11, 1956) is an American jazz guitarist from Los Angeles. His mother is Finnish-American actress Taina Elg.''Finlands ridderskaps och adels kalender 1992'', pp. 92–93. Esbo 1991. In his teens he moved ...

and Jimi Sumén, and harpist and keyboardist

Iro Haarla Iro Haarla (born 7 November 1956) is a Finnish jazz pianist and harpist, as well as composer and band leader. Career At the Sibelius Academy, in Helsinki, Haarla studied classical piano under Izumi Tateno, musical composition under Einar Englu ...

, who was Vesala's wife. Vesala died from congestive heart failure in

Yläne Yläne () is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated to Pöytyä on 1 January 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. The municipality had a population of 2,119 (2004-12-3 ...

, Finland at the age of 54.

Discography

As leader

* ''

Nan Madol Nan Madol is an archaeological site adjacent to the eastern shore of the island of Pohnpei, now part of the Madolenihmw district of Pohnpei state in the Federated States of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. Nan Madol was the capital of t ...

'' (ECM, 1974) * '' Satu'' (ECM, 1977) * ''Heavy Life'' (Leo, 1980) * ''

Lumi Lumi may refer to: Computing * Lumi (software), chemical analysis software * Lumi masking, a technique used by video compression software * LUMI, a supercomputer located in Finland Music * ''Lumi'' (album), a 1987 album by Edward Vesala ...

'' (ECM, 1986) * ''

Ode to the Death of Jazz ''Ode to the Death of Jazz'' is an album by Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer Edward Vesala recorded in 1989 and released on the ECM label in 1990.

'' (ECM, 1989) * ''

Invisible Storm ''Invisible Storm'' is an album by Finnish avant-garde jazz composer, bandleader and drummer Edward Vesala recorded in 1991 and released on the ECM label in 1992.

'' (ECM, 1991) * ''

Nordic Gallery Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, written in plural as Nordics, the northwestern European countries, including Scandinavia, Fennoscandia and the North Atlantic * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in ...

'' (ECM, 1994)

As sideman

With

* ''

Triptykon Triptykon is a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich, formed in 2008 by Thomas Gabriel Fischer, founding member of the pioneering heavy metal bands Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Apollyon Sun. History Fischer announced his departure from Ce ...

'' (ECM, 1973) With

* ''TWET (Polish Jazz vol. 39)'' (

Polskie Nagrania Muza Polskie Nagrania "Muza" ("Polish Records 'Muse' ", official name since 2005: "Polskie Nagrania Sp. z o.o", i.e., Polskie Nagrania Ltd.) is a Polish record label based in Warsaw. It has produced records in many genres including pop, rock, jazz, fol ...

, 1974) * '' Balladyna'' (ECM, 1976) * ''Live at Remont'' (Helicon, 1976) * ''Almost Green'' (Leo, 1978) With

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active ...

* '' Around 6'' (ECM, 1979)

References

External links

* Allmusic Guide biography of Edward Vesalaby Chris Kelsey
Eetu – 12 sessiota Edward Vesalan kanssa
Documentary film on Vesala and his work with Sound and Fury by Markus Viljanen (1994)
''Jazzhouse''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vesala, Edward 1945 births 1999 deaths People from Mäntyharju 20th-century conductors (music) 20th-century drummers 20th-century male musicians ECM Records artists Finnish conductors (music) Finnish jazz drummers Finnish jazz musicians Finnish male composers Male jazz musicians 20th-century Finnish composers