Edward Vesala (born Martti Vesala) was a Finnish jazz drummer with a flair for the avant-garde. One of the most prominent figures in Finnish jazz - particularly free jazz - Vesala played in both jazz and rock bands early on before evolving his performance into something entirely his own. Born on February 15, 1945, Vesala studied percussion and music theory at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, after which he spent time with the Finnish rock band Blues Section and the prog rock band Apollo.
His jazz career began in earnest when he appeared on Jan Garbarek’s album Triptykon in 1973, which was released on the famed German jazz label ECM. Vesala’s affiliation with the label gave him instant clout in the jazz world beyond his home country, and he debuted as a leader in 1974 with the album Nan Madol, also on ECM. His own albums arrived sporadically over the following decades, all for ECM, notably 1990’s contrarily-titled Ode to the Death of Jazz. In the mid-’80s he launched the group Sound & Fury with students from his music seminars, and the ensemble recorded four albums. His final album, Invisible Storm, arrived in 1992, and he died on December 4, 1999.
