As Jaco is my biggest influence and in my eyes and ears the outstanding number ONE of all electric bassplayers from the first time I heard him 'till the end of days.....I have to confess that I had a bass-hero before him, also with Finnish heritage.

His name is -or I have to say today- was Pekka Pohjola. I'm so sad to hear that he left us Nov 27 at the age of only 56.

We once shared the same space in a restaurant in Helsinki in the 70', where I was playing with som friends of his, but as a "shy admirer" I never took the chance to go and talk to him. I regret not doing that. Don't follow my example.

For those who didn't know him, here is some information taken from the site. http://www.rockadillo.fi/pekkapohjola/


RIP Pekka.
Örjan


"Pekka Pohjola is a unique artist, whose music is appreciated by connoisseurs all over the world. He is not underrated.

Joe Public might not know him, but most people who have had a taste of his music, rate him as one of the major composers and musicians in popular music. He writes slowly, so new albums are rare and far apart. It has been more than five years since his latest studio album. Meanwhile his music has reached new generations of music lovers. You do not have to be a fan of progressive rock, fusion or jazz rock to appreciate his majestic melody lines. Even an artist like DJ Shadow from a totally different genre of music has sampled his stuff.

Pekka Pohjola (born 1952) is without doubt one of the greatest electric bass players in Europe. He studied classical piano and violin at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, all the while allowing his natural instincts to lead him to a career in rock 'n' roll. After a stint with The Boys, a pioneering group often compared to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Pekka joined Wigwam in 1970, staying for four glorious years. Wigwam was one of the most influential Finnish bands in the Seventies, and apart from being quite succesful in Scandinavia they later became a cult band in England even before being signed by Virgin Records.

After leaving Wigwam Pekka did a lot of studio work and played a for a short time with the Jukka Tolonen Band and Made In Sweden. In 1977 Pekka formed The Group, recording their eponymous album in the same year. But most importantly, Pekka recorded his first critically acclaimed solo album, the delicious Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva, during his Wigwam days and his second (Harakka Bialoipokku, internationally known as B The Magpie) and third (The Mathematician's Air Display) albums were internationally released by Virgin Records. The latter was produced by Mike Oldfield, who also played on the record.
Among the many other musicians that have admired Pekka's talents is Frank Zappa.

Pekka's fourth solo album Visitation was released in 1979 and it was another big critical success. In 1980 The Group became PEKKA POHJOLA GROUP and they released the album Kätkävaaran Lohikäärme (The Dragon of Kätkävaara Mountain). The band toured extensively on the Continent and Scandinavia in the early Eighties with different line-ups.

Somewhere along the line the word Group was also dropped from the band's name, so that they became known collectively as PEKKA POHJOLA. Urban Tango (1982) was the first album released on his own Pohjola Records label, operated by Rockadillo. There followed some work with various television film music projects, one of them forming the basis for his album Jokamies, released in Finland in 1983. It was released in the USA and Germany under the title Everyman in early 1984. The album was an overnight success on progressive radio stations across North America.

Space Waltz followed in 1985 and Flight Of The Angel in 1986, adding more converts to the legion of his loyal followers. However, in the late eighties Pekka got dissillusioned with the rock scene and disappeared for a couple of years to compose his first symphony. His Sinfonia no 1 with AVANTI! orchestra was premiered live in 1989 and was released on CD in 1990.

Pekka spent two years working on Changing Waters, which marked his majestic return to the recording scene as well as to the live circuit. His new band for the Changing Waters sessions featured Finnish top musicians Seppo Kantonen (keyboards), Markku Kanerva (guitar) and Anssi Nykänen (drums), who became his regular band. The CD was released in Finland in November 1992 and in Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland in the Spring of 1993. In 1993 Pekka Pohjola played the band's first American shows in New York and Austin.

In November 1994 the band played three shows in Tokyo, where Pekka has a strong and loyal cult following. The shows were recorded for a Live in Japan CD which was released by Japanese label Marquee / Belle Antique in May 1995. In April 1995 Pekka Pohjola played in Barcelona and Madrid in Spain.
In November 1995 a double-CD Heavy Jazz - Live in Helsinki and Tokyo was released in Finland. The release date for Japan is January 1996. The CD was mainly recorded in April in Helsinki by Finnish Broadcasting Company's 24-track mobile, but two tracks are 8-track digital recordings from Tokyo in 1994. Heavy Jazz was mixed at the Finnish National Opera studio in Helsinki.

In late September 1997 new studio album, called Pewit, was finally released after five years since Changing Waters came out.

In May 2001 Pekka Pohjola released Views, his first solo album in quite some time. Compared to his hard hitting rocked-out albums of the '80s, the sound on Views could be considered a toning down of the rock-solid guitar-based Pohjola sound boldly witnessed on '80s classics like Urban Tango and Space Waltz. Instead, the sophisticated harmonies on Views focuses on Pohjola's innate skills as a jazz and pop-classical composer-arranger. A number of musicians help take Pohjola's symphonic sound to the next level including long time Pohjola group members, keyboardist Seppo Kantonen and guitarist Markku Kanerva. With it's heavy accent on strings and brass arrangements, Views takes a good look back to Pohjola's trend-setting second album, released on Virgin in England back in '75 with the title B The Magpie. In fact the only song to feature a guitar here is a really different-sounding, Zappa-inspired track entitled "The Red Porsche". The first pop vocal track featured on a Pohjola disc since the early '80s, the song features a few hot vocalists singing the original lyrics (in english) taken from a poem written by Charles Bukowski.

Views makes for some pleasant listening indeed. It might not be the album you expected from Pekka (well, what is?), but the music is (still) so good, you just can't help but enjoy it."

Listening To: Wigwam: "Fairyport" & Pekka Pohjola: "Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva" on vinyl

Some links.

With "Made in Sweden":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a-E5TF1JlI&feature=related

Wigwam from "Fairyport":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRXQ5WR416Q&feature=related

From "Harakka Bialoipokku" his second LP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ3APnHz384&feature=related

Listening To: Wigwam: "Fairyport" & Pekka Pohjola: "Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva" on vinyl

While i'm at it I might as well continue!

Like a crossing between Mahavishnu and Return To Forever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wlbMKqlMPU&feature=related

Man, haven't heard this for years!

Listening To: Wigwam: \"Fairyport\" & Pekka Pohjola: \"Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva\" on vinyl