13/02/2026
FUNK SPECIAL 🔥
💛 Tomi Salesvuo East Funk Attack
💛 Eero Koivistoinen
💛 MUSCULAR
💛 Helmi
Funky Friday friends & fans💥
a Little "story behind the scene"
Have a great weekend.
- Tomi
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
I was just an 18-year-old young jazz lion when the phone (a landline!) rang at our home on Piiluvankatu in Lappeenranta. I answered in a hurry because I was just about to head out for rehearsal or maybe rushing to catch a train to Helsinki... It was my first year at the Sibelius Academy’s Jazz Department, spring in full swing. On the other end of the line was the legendary saxophonist and composer Eero Koivistoinen! “Would you be available for a studio session at YLE M1 Studio (Finnish Broadcasting Company)? We’re recording my new film music score.” Woohoo—so incredibly cool! Koippa himself is calling and inviting me to a film music session! He had heard me play somewhere during my first winter in Helsinki and needed a drummer for the session. The film we were recording for was “Petoksen kehät,” starring Timo Torikka and Nina Jääskeläinen, released in the fall of 1991. Eero has always been an open-minded and innovative artist, often inviting much younger musicians to join him and giving them a chance to show what they can do. I actually don’t remember much about the session itself—I was crazy nervous! But apparently, that first official studio job of my life went well, because Eero kept calling.
Soon I was already on a major Finnish tour with Eero’s band Zone, gaining experience playing with the stars of Finnish jazz at a very young age. Zone was a large ensemble that played music by Eero Koivistoinen, Jukka Linkola, and Jarmo Savolainen, among others. The touring band included, among others, Seppo Kantonen, Jarmo Savolainen, Häkä Virtanen, Jukka Perko, Mika Mylläri, and of course, Eero Koivistoinen. Another unforgettable highlight was the televised 75th anniversary concert of Finnish Jazz with Umo Jazz Orchestra in Kuopio, featuring numerous soloists. Eero, as conductor of the concert, invited me to play as well.
Eero was also my teacher at the Academy. For example, I took his arranging course, which began in the fall with quartet arrangements and ended in the spring with a full Big Band chart! Naturally, Umo performed our arrangements for us, and we got to hear our own pieces played by a professional band – thank´s to Eero! Quite a journey, starting from scratch, but even through that Eero guided and encouraged me amazingly well.
Over the years, we’ve occasionally run into each other—and sometimes played together, such as at the Pori Jazz Festival. Eero even performed at my anniversary gig a few years ago at On The Rocks Club, and so on. Last autumn, we happened to play the same gig in Turku, and it was great to catch up and hear Eero’s stories after a long time. We agreed it would be fun to collaborate again and maybe play a gig together sometime.
Well, that gig is finally happening:
Korjaamo’s “Funk Special” event is on Wednesday, March 25th, starting at 19:00.
Besides us, the amazing Muscular and Helmi will also be on stage!
Eero and I have already been cooking up the set list this week—expect some surprises!
So Grab your tickets in advance from lippu.fi
— we’ll see you at Korjaamo!
TICKETS / ENNAKKOLIPUT:
https://bit.ly/KorjaamoFunkSpecial
