Edward Vesala

Edward Vesala at the International Jazz Festival, Prague (1984)

Edward Vesala (born February 15, 1945 in Mäntyharju as Martti Vesala , † December 4, 1999 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish jazz musician (drummer, composer, band leader).

Live and act

Vesala first recorded with Mauri Antero Numminen , founded his own trio around 1970, became known to a larger audience through his collaboration with Jan Garbarek , Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald, and in particular with Tomasz Stańko and Tomasz Szukalski ; with Stanko he can be heard on a variety of records from the 1970s. As early as 1973 he made a solo record as a percussion artist. In addition to his performances with Stanko, he often accompanied American musicians such as Paul Bley , Chick Corea , Archie Shepp , Roswell Rudd and Gary Burton at this time . In 1976 he appeared with Toto Blanke and Jasper van't Hof in the jazz rock group Electric Circus . In 1977 he formed a trio with Gerd Dudek and Buschi Niebergall .

From 1984 to 1986 he led courses and workshops and worked for a year as a teacher at a school where he imparted his experiences to young musicians. He later continued to teach these students privately; from this group he recruited musicians for his ensemble Sound and Fury . This large-format ensemble, which is conspicuous due to its idiosyncratic line-up (woodwinds, harp, guitars, accordion) only played the idiosyncratic, tango, classical and Finnish folk music, but sometimes quite bulky original compositions of the band leader. In this group, the saxophonists Jorma Tapio and Pepa Päivinen , the guitarists Raoul Björkenheim and Jimi Sumen as well as the harpist and keyboardist Iro Haarla , who was married to Vesala, should be mentioned as musicians . Vesala also composed for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Vesala is considered an important musician on the European jazz scene and made a significant contribution to the development of a specific European jazz, both as a drummer and as a composer and band leader.

Lexigraphic entries

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
• Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 .
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .

Web links

• Discography ( Memento from July 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Edward Vesala at Allmusic (English)
• Reviews on Edvard Vesala Sound & Fury (Nordic Music)