Pekka Pohjola
Encyclopedia
Jussi Pekka Pohjola was a Finnish
multi-instrumentalist
, composer
and producer
. Best known as a bass
player, Pohjola was also a classically trained pianist
and violin
ist. Originally Pohjola rose to fame as the bass player of the Finnish progressive rock
band Wigwam
, but he soon departed on a solo career, initially releasing Frank Zappa
-influenced progressive rock albums. As his career progressed Pohjola developed a more novel musical style that could best be described as fusion jazz. In addition to Wigwam and his solo albums, Pohjola also played with Made in Sweden
, The Group and the bands of Jukka Tolonen
and Mike Oldfield
.
Pohjola belonged to one of the most prominent musical families in Finland. Conductor Sakari Oramo
is Pohjola's cousin.
in Helsinki
, Finland. After a stint with The Boys (the seminal Finnish band led by brothers Eero and Jussi Raittinen), he joined Wigwam
in 1970, contributing on two of their albums before leaving the group in 1972 to pursue a solo career (although Pohjola did again contribute on Wigwam's Being
in 1974). Pohjola's first solo album Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva (Resin Eye Bark Ear), released 1972, bears notable resemblance to the works of Frank Zappa. After leaving Wigwam Pohjola also played with the Jukka Tolonen
Band for a short time. In 1974 his second solo album, Harakka Bialoipokku (Bialoipokku the Magpie), was released in Finland. The album saw Pohjola's sound developing to a more distinctive direction, with heavy usage of trumpets, saxophones and piano. The somewhat jazz-influenced album piqued the interest of Virgin Records
executive Richard Branson
enough to release it in the United Kingdom
the following year under the name B the Magpie.
By the request of Virgin, Pohjola teamed up with Mike Oldfield
to record and produce his third solo album, released in 1977 in Finland as Keesojen Lehto (Grove of the Keeso) and in the UK as Mathematician's Air Display. The album was later rereleased under the name The Consequences Of Indecisions and credited to Oldfield instead of Pohjola. Oldfield was impressed enough with Pohjola to ask him join him on his 1978 tour. As a result Pohjola can also be heard on Oldfield's live album Exposed, released 1979. In 1978 Pohjola formed The Group, who released a self-titled album the same year. In 1979, Pohjola released Visitation, his fourth solo album. All of Pohjola's solo albums from the 70s had exhibited fantasy
influences, but these were undoubtedly strongest on Visitation.
In 1980 The Group changed its name to Pekka Pohjola Group and released the album Kätkävaaran Lohikäärme (The Dragon of Kätkävaara). The Pekka Pohjola Group disbanded soon after the release of their second album. Pohjola's next solo album, Urban Tango, was released in 1982. It was a radical departure from fantasy- and nature-inspired works of the 70s. It was also the first Pekka Pohjola album to feature comprehensible singing, the vocals provided by Kassu Halonen. Urban Tango was also the first of Pohjola's albums to be released on his own Pohjola Records label. His next album was the soundtrack to Hannu Heikinheimo's 1983 movie Jokamies (released in 1984 under the title Everyman in the United States
and Germany
). The album was notable for an abundant use of synthesizers. Space Waltz, released 1985, further explored the themes first heard on Urban Tango. 1986's Flight Of The Angel was to be Pohjola's last album of the 80s. The following year a compilation of his material was released under the name New Impressionist.
.
Pohjola's piece "The Madness Subsides" from B the Magpie was sampled by DJ Shadow
as the main bass line in his song Midnight in a Perfect World, from the wildly successful album Endtroducing... The same sample is also used in SlowHill's song "Valo."
On 27 November 2008, Pohjola died at the age of 56.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. Best known as a bass
Bass (instrument)
Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
player, Pohjola was also a classically trained pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist. Originally Pohjola rose to fame as the bass player of the Finnish progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Wigwam
Wigwam (progressive rock)
Wigwam is a Finnish progressive rock band formed in 1968.Wigwam was founded after the split of the seminal Blues Section, with whom drummer Ronnie Österberg had played before. He formed the band as a trio, but soon brought in British expatriate singer/songwriter Jim Pembroke and organist Jukka...
, but he soon departed on a solo career, initially releasing Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
-influenced progressive rock albums. As his career progressed Pohjola developed a more novel musical style that could best be described as fusion jazz. In addition to Wigwam and his solo albums, Pohjola also played with Made in Sweden
Made In Sweden (band)
Made in Sweden was a Swedish jazz-rock supergroup active from 1968 to 1977.The founding members were Georg Wadenius , Bo Häggström , and Tommy Borgudd previously members of the pioneering Swedish rock group Lea Riders Group, which broke up in mid-1968.Their first album, Made In Sweden With Love ,...
, The Group and the bands of Jukka Tolonen
Jukka Tolonen
Jukka Tolonen is a Finnish jazz guitarist. Tolonen became famous as guitarist for the band Tasavallan Presidentti...
and Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
.
Pohjola belonged to one of the most prominent musical families in Finland. Conductor Sakari Oramo
Sakari Oramo
Sakari Markus Oramo OBE is a Finnish conductor.Oramo started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1989, he enrolled in Jorma Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy...
is Pohjola's cousin.
Early life and career
Pohjola studied classical piano and violin at the Sibelius AcademySibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland. After a stint with The Boys (the seminal Finnish band led by brothers Eero and Jussi Raittinen), he joined Wigwam
Wigwam (progressive rock)
Wigwam is a Finnish progressive rock band formed in 1968.Wigwam was founded after the split of the seminal Blues Section, with whom drummer Ronnie Österberg had played before. He formed the band as a trio, but soon brought in British expatriate singer/songwriter Jim Pembroke and organist Jukka...
in 1970, contributing on two of their albums before leaving the group in 1972 to pursue a solo career (although Pohjola did again contribute on Wigwam's Being
Being (album)
Being is a 1974 album by the Finnish progressive rock group Wigwam.- Track listing :# "Proletarian" - 2:10# "InspiRed Machine" - 1:28# "Petty-Bourgeois" - 2:58...
in 1974). Pohjola's first solo album Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva (Resin Eye Bark Ear), released 1972, bears notable resemblance to the works of Frank Zappa. After leaving Wigwam Pohjola also played with the Jukka Tolonen
Jukka Tolonen
Jukka Tolonen is a Finnish jazz guitarist. Tolonen became famous as guitarist for the band Tasavallan Presidentti...
Band for a short time. In 1974 his second solo album, Harakka Bialoipokku (Bialoipokku the Magpie), was released in Finland. The album saw Pohjola's sound developing to a more distinctive direction, with heavy usage of trumpets, saxophones and piano. The somewhat jazz-influenced album piqued the interest of Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
executive Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
enough to release it in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
the following year under the name B the Magpie.
By the request of Virgin, Pohjola teamed up with Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
to record and produce his third solo album, released in 1977 in Finland as Keesojen Lehto (Grove of the Keeso) and in the UK as Mathematician's Air Display. The album was later rereleased under the name The Consequences Of Indecisions and credited to Oldfield instead of Pohjola. Oldfield was impressed enough with Pohjola to ask him join him on his 1978 tour. As a result Pohjola can also be heard on Oldfield's live album Exposed, released 1979. In 1978 Pohjola formed The Group, who released a self-titled album the same year. In 1979, Pohjola released Visitation, his fourth solo album. All of Pohjola's solo albums from the 70s had exhibited fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
influences, but these were undoubtedly strongest on Visitation.
In 1980 The Group changed its name to Pekka Pohjola Group and released the album Kätkävaaran Lohikäärme (The Dragon of Kätkävaara). The Pekka Pohjola Group disbanded soon after the release of their second album. Pohjola's next solo album, Urban Tango, was released in 1982. It was a radical departure from fantasy- and nature-inspired works of the 70s. It was also the first Pekka Pohjola album to feature comprehensible singing, the vocals provided by Kassu Halonen. Urban Tango was also the first of Pohjola's albums to be released on his own Pohjola Records label. His next album was the soundtrack to Hannu Heikinheimo's 1983 movie Jokamies (released in 1984 under the title Everyman in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
). The album was notable for an abundant use of synthesizers. Space Waltz, released 1985, further explored the themes first heard on Urban Tango. 1986's Flight Of The Angel was to be Pohjola's last album of the 80s. The following year a compilation of his material was released under the name New Impressionist.
Later life and death
During the late 80s Pohjola composed Sinfonia no. 1 ("Symphony No. 1"), which premiered live in 1989 and was released on CD in 1990, performed by the AVANTI! music group. Returning to the music scene in 1992, Pohjola released his ninth solo album Changing Waters. The album's sound differed greatly from Pohjola's guitar-driven works of the 80s, offering a softer, more piano-based soundscape. Changing Waters was given in an international release in spring 1993. The album featured Finnish top musicians Seppo Kantonen (keyboards), Markku Kanerva (guitar) and Anssi Nykänen (drums), who became Pohjola's regular band. In May 1995, Pohjola released Live in Japan, a recording from three shows in Tokyo in November 1994. Later that year, Pohjola released a double-CD Heavy Jazz - Live in Helsinki and Tokyo. His next studio album, Pewit, followed in September 1997. In May 2001 Pekka Pohjola released Views, on which he toned down the rock-solid guitar-based sound of Urban Tango and Space Waltz, instead focusing more on jazz and pop-classical arrangements, leaning heavily on strings and brass arrangements. The only song on Views to feature a guitar is "The Red Porsche", after a poem written by Charles BukowskiCharles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
.
Pohjola's piece "The Madness Subsides" from B the Magpie was sampled by DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow
Joshua Paul Davis better known as DJ Shadow is an American music producer, DJ and songwriter. He is considered a prominent figure in the development of instrumental hip hop and first gained notice with the release of his highly acclaimed debut album Endtroducing....., which was constructed...
as the main bass line in his song Midnight in a Perfect World, from the wildly successful album Endtroducing... The same sample is also used in SlowHill's song "Valo."
On 27 November 2008, Pohjola died at the age of 56.
Discography
| Year | Artist | Original title | Alternate titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Wigwam Wigwam (progressive rock) Wigwam is a Finnish progressive rock band formed in 1968.Wigwam was founded after the split of the seminal Blues Section, with whom drummer Ronnie Österberg had played before. He formed the band as a trio, but soon brought in British expatriate singer/songwriter Jim Pembroke and organist Jukka... |
Tombstone Valentine Tombstone Valentine Tombstone Valentine is a studio album released by Wigwam in 1970. While the previous album Hard 'n' Horny was more of a jazz influenced album, Tombstone Valentine in one of their more pop-ish albums... |
|
| 1971 | Wigwam | Fairyport Fairyport Fairyport is a double LP by Wigwam, which was released in 1971.-Side B:# "Gray Traitors" – 2:48# "Cafffkaff, the Country Psychologist" – 5:22# "May Your Will Be Done, Dear Lord" – 5:28# "How to Make It Big In Hospital" – 3:03-Side C:... |
|
| 1972 | Pekka Pohjola | Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva | |
| 1974 | Wigwam | Being Being (album) Being is a 1974 album by the Finnish progressive rock group Wigwam.- Track listing :# "Proletarian" - 2:10# "InspiRed Machine" - 1:28# "Petty-Bourgeois" - 2:58... |
|
| 1974 | Pekka Pohjola | Harakka Bialoipokku | B the Magpie Skatan |
| 1976 | Made in Sweden | Where do we Begin? | |
| 1977 | Pekka Pohjola | Keesojen Lehto | Mathematician's Air Display Skuggornas Tjuvstart The Consequences of Indecisions (credited to Mike OldfieldMike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature... )   Untitled (credited to Mike & Sally OldfieldSally Oldfield Sally Oldfield is a singer-songwriter, and the sister of the composers Mike Oldfield and Terry Oldfield.-Early life:... , Pekka Pohjola) |
| 1978 | The Group | The Group | |
| 1979 | Mike Oldfield Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature... |
Exposed (live album) | |
| 1979 | Pekka Pohjola | Visitation | |
| 1979 | Gábor Szabó Gábor Szabó Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:... |
Belsta River | |
| 1980 | Pekka Pohjola Group | Kätkävaaran Lohikäärme | |
| 1982 | Pekka Pohjola | Urban Tango | |
| 1983 | Pekka Pohjola | Jokamies | Everyman |
| 1985 | Pekka Pohjola | Space Waltz | |
| 1986 | Pekka Pohjola | Flight of the Angel | |
| 1986 | Espoo Big Band | Yesterday's Games | |
| 1987 | Pekka Pohjola | New Impressionist (compilation) | |
| 1990 | Pekka Pohjola & AVANTI! | Sinfonia No. 1 | |
| 1992 | Pekka Pohjola | Changing Waters | |
| 1995 | Pekka Pohjola | Live in Japan | |
| 1995 | Pekka Pohjola | Heavy Jazz - Live in Helsinki and Tokyo | |
| 1997 | Pekka Pohjola | Pewit | |
| 2001 | Pekka Pohjola | Views |