Vesala, Edward
I'm Here
Drummer and composer Edward Vesala, the most internationally renowned jazz musician from Finland, was very keen on percussion instruments. Oddly enough, this broad and enduring interest is hardly evident on his albums. Whether playing on his own albums or contributing to other musicians' work, Vesala played a standard drum kit most of the time. He hardly used external percussionists on his own albums either. And most of all: his music was almost never percussive, at least in the traditional manner. Perhaps even stranger is the fact that he barely played any drum solos on his own albums. 'I'm Here', recorded in Helsinki in 1973, is Vesala's only solo album and only percussive album, and one of the few where he played drum solos, albeit in his own idiosyncratic way.