Trailblazer always seeking to innovate

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

For someone who has produced 31 widely acclaimed albums, acted as sideman in hundreds of jazz albums and been named a jazz legend in his home country, Finnish saxophone player Eero Koivistoinen is indeed humble.

"There are other legends on the Finnish jazz scene ... People may consider me a legend simply because I have been in this (jazz) business for a long time," Koivistoinen told The Jakarta Post in a postconcert interview.

For someone who had been in the jazz business for so long, Koivistoinen still retains a passion for music, as when he first picked up his instrument in the 1950s.

With so many achievements under his belt, Koivistoinen could easily retire from the music business gracefully and pass on the baton to younger musicians, who are never in short supply in Finland -- the result of quality music education in the Nordic country.

Instead, the 60-year-old musician has not stopped composing new songs, fusing various elements from African music, Finnish folk, blues and even electronic music to produce compositions that he can genuinely call his own.

"It is a never-ending search; my own style is richer and broader as I absorb as many influences as possible," he said.

A recent concert at Dutch cultural center Erasmus Huis was living testament to the brilliance of Koivistoinen's work, the fruit of his relentless quest.

His repertoire took its cue from the rhythmic patterns of African music, the melodic richness of Scandinavian folk music, the harmonic tightness of the blues and the vitality of the Beatles.

The concert also served to tell the audience how far Koivistoinen has gone in music.

Playing classical music in his childhood and forming a Jimi Hendrix-influenced blues band during his adolescent years, Koivistoinen finally learned that jazz was his passion, although he did not entirely disown the genres that he grew up with.

"My sailor brother returned home from abroad bringing loads of jazz records, which were very hard to find in Finland in the late 1950s. Once I played them, I found that jazz was something else," he said.

Exposure to the music prompted him to take up jazz. However, as there was no formal education in jazz at that time, Koivistoinen enrolled at the Sibelius Academy classical music school, taking courses in saxophone under Eero Linnnala and composition with Aulis Sallinen.

Rapid rise to fame

His dexterous skill quickly won him recognition.

Barely in his twenties, he was already a star in Helsinki's burgeoning jazz scene.

In 1967, he was awarded the first Georgie Award by the newly established Finnish Jazz Federation and was nominated Jazz Musician of the Year.

Two years later, Koivistoinen and his band took part in the Montreaux jazz festival and won first prize for ensemble performance, the first time a Finnish band had won such a prestigious award.

The win gave him the opportunity to play the Newport Jazz festival in the U.S., the very first time a Finnish jazz was recognized on this scale.

The young Koivistoinen continued to break new records.

His skill in composition won him a scholarship to enroll at the prestigious Berklee Music School in Boston. He was the first Finn to be awarded the scholarship.

Enrolling at the school enabled him to meet some of the big names in jazz and forge a link with them, something that would assist his musical career in latter days.

In Picture In Three Colors, an album released in 1983, Koivistionen invited megastars in jazz, including guitarist John Scofield, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Ron McClure, trumpeter Tom Harrel and pianist Jim McNeely, as guest musicians.

The album was considered the peak of his musical career. Again in 1992, he asked Dejohnette, McClure and Scofield to play in his sixteenth album, Altered Things.

The work was released to rave reviews.

Bill Milkowski of Down Beat magazine granted four-and-a-half stars to the album.

"Koivistoinen happens to be a first-rate composer, an arranger of the highest order, and a strong improviser on tenor," Milkowski wrote.

In recent years, Koivistionen has shown a great interest in African music.

He has traveled to Mozambique six times since 1998 and recorded albums with local musicians from the southern African country.

Scores of musicians from Senegal were guesting in the recording session for an album that was later released as Eero Koivistoinen and Senegalese Drums in 1998.

Forever curious about novelty in music, Koivitoinen was interested in studying gamelan (traditional Balinese music) and learning about the possibility of marrying the two styles, soon after he and his band arrived on the tourist island to perform at the Bali Jazz Festival late last week.

He said that making different combinations would help jazz evolve against an onslaught from the pop industry.

But above all, such an experiment is the only way for Koivistoinen to amuse himself.

"I tried to keep things interesting. If I do the same things every night it might get a little boring, If I got bored then the audience would, too," he said, with a chuckle.