Edward Vesala

Drummer Edward Vesala was an early Finnish pioneer of avant garde jazz, and he managed to release this lovely LP that has to be considered the first proper Finnish free jazz album in 1970. The Vesala trio was supposed to be a quartet, but trumpetist Mike Koskinen fell ill, and the remaining exploratory trio (Vesala, saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen and bassist Arild Andersen) recorded the album in a short, fiery session. The album Nana is an absolute rarity as well as an absolute beauty. As with many Scandinavian free trio sides from the time, there's a clear inspiration here from the ESP scene in the US – as tracks are out, but never too far enough to have a sense of their own presence – not nearly as hard-blown as the Brotzmann generation, but nicely searching, especially on Aaltonen's soprano work.
Finally reissued, with extensive new liner notes and rare photos.