Eero Koivistoinen

Eero Koivistoinen ( born January 13, 1946 in Helsinki) is a Finnish jazz saxophonist ( tenor, soprano and sopranino saxophone), composer, arranger and bandleader.

Life and work

Eero Koivistoinen plays the violin as a child; at the age of 16, he moved to the saxophone. He began in the mid -1960s, his music career in the Finnish jazz scene, playing in jazz clubs of Helsinki. During this time he studied music at the Sibelius Academy, saxophone with Eero Linnala Aulis Sallinen and composition with. 1967 made ​​his first recordings with the band Blues Section, who played a Jimi Hendrix -influenced blues rock. In 1968, the psychedelic album Valtakunta.

Eero Koivistoinens was then known in the band with Edward Vesala and Pekka Sarmanto; the trio was one of the first avant-garde and free jazz bands in Finland. In 1967 Koivistoinen price of the newly founded Finnish Jazz Federation and became a musician of the year. In 1969 he plays with its own formation at the Montreux Jazz Festival, then at the Newport Jazz Festival.

In the early 1970s Koivistoinen operated multiplies as a composer, studied composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston with Herb Pomeroy and Joe Viola. In addition, he has taught since even at the Sibelius Academy and worked next with his quartet and recorded several albums. In the 1970s he worked with Olli Ahvenlahti, Jukka Tolonen, Reino Laine and Pekka Pohjola.

In 1981, Koivistoinen the price for the arrangement of the European Broadcasting Union for his orchestral work Ultima Thule. Since its founding in 1975, he was part of the UMO Jazz Orchestra. In 1983 his album Picture in Three Colours, with whom he was well known internationally; he was played by Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, Tom Harrell, Jim McNeely and Ron McClure. In 1992, he reunited with DeJohnette, Scofield and McClure, further with Randy Brecker, Conrad Herwig and David Kikoski, to record the album Altered Things.

In the 1990s, he focused more on composing and leading larger ensembles; Koivistoinen was at this time artistic director of the UMO UMO and produced the album Umo Jazz Orchestra for the Naxos Jazz label; He also led the ensemble Electrifying Miles with Tim Hagans as a guest soloist.

In the 2000s he also dealt reinforced with African music. He recorded the album Eero Koivistoinen and Senegalese drums and joined with African musicians on various jazz festivals in Finland and 2003 at the Stockholm Jazz Festival. His album Utu (2001 ) contained arrangements of Finnish Folk Songs for Jazz Quartet; Suomalainen (2003) was developed in collaboration with the singer Johanna Iivanainen with a repertoire of old and new Finnish songs.

Disco printing specifications

  • The Original Sin ( Scandia Rec 1971)
  • Wahoo! ( Warner, 1972)
  • 3rd version (1973, Porter)
  • The Front is Breaking ( Love Records, 1975)
  • Labyrinth ( Love, 1977)
  • Picture In Three Colours ( Core Records / Line, 1983)
  • Some Time Ago (A Records, 1994)
  • Dialogue ( 1995)
  • Zone: First Definition ( 1999)
  • Utu (2001)
  • Suomalainen (2003)
Richard Cook (journalist) Brian Morton (Scottish writer) Integrated Authority File
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