Biography
Originally named Martii Juhani Vesala, the drummer adopted a new identity soon after beginning his professional path. Between 1965 and 1967 he pursued studies in music theory and orchestral percussion at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy. During the middle and later years of the decade he worked alongside Eero Koivistoinen and Seppo Paakkunainen. His first ECM session came in 1972 with the release of Triptykon, a trio date that also featured saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Arild Andersen; numerous further recordings for the German imprint would follow. That sustained relationship with ECM helped cement Vesala’s standing as a leading figure in free-jazz drumming. Throughout the 1970s he collaborated with like-minded experimentalists including Peter Brötzmann, Charlie Mariano, and Terje Rypdal. His early-decade partnerships with Koivistoinen, Juhani Aaltonen, and Pekka Sarmanto left a lasting mark on Finland’s emerging free-jazz community. Between 1974 and 1978 the quartet he co-led with Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko entered the studio several times, most memorably for Nan Madol, Vesala’s debut outing as a leader on ECM. In 1978 he launched his own imprint, Leo—distinct from the British label run by Leo Feigin—which documented both European free-jazz artists such as Stanko and American players like Frank Foster and Charlie Mariano. The 1980 album Heavylife, again with Stanko, brought in bassist Reggie Workman, saxophonist J.D. Parran, and tuba player Bob Stewart. Early in the following decade Vesala began leading music workshops under the name Sound & Fury; in 1984 he assembled a band of the same title from the most promising participants. That ensemble would ultimately record four albums for ECM. Vesala’s 1990 release Ode to the Death of Jazz served as an explicit protest against the conservative turn then dominating jazz. He kept performing with Sound & Fury through the 1990s while also writing pieces for the Helsinki Philharmonic and other large groups. Though widely regarded as Finland’s best-known jazz musician, Vesala’s later work resisted easy classification, weaving together ethnic traditions, classical forms, rock energy, microtonal explorations, and Finnish folk elements. He succumbed to heart failure at his residence outside Helsinki in 1999.
Albums
