Pepa Päivinen North Pipe

(FIN)

contemporary jazz

A lively band that covers a lot of ground, basically what has happened in jazz since the 60’s plus some wild, sometimes psychedelic, rock moments. Their special charge comes from the highly energetic dynamics between the leader, a seriously jazzy multi-saxophonist/flutist, and the rock-oriented guitarist with a totally open mind, driven by a luxuriously elastic rhythm section and given extra colour by a cellist. It’s eclectic, but North Pipe has a strong collective personality that holds everything together.

They have two excellent albums, Tiram Num and North Pipe, that just bristle with robust energy. The general vibe brings to mind the heady times, when the 60’s turned into the 70’s.

Pepa Päivinen is one of Finland’s top saxists and an able composer. Taught by Juhani Aaltonen and Paroni Paakkunainen (two icons of Finnish jazz), he went professional with our original guitar god Jukka Tolonen, had a long stretch in Edward Vesala’s celebrated Sound & Fury, played with Anthony Braxton and has released several albums as a leader. Instead of regular guitarist Timo Kämäräinen in Pori they have Raoul Björkenheim (Krakatau, Scorch Trio, etc), who has an international reputation as one of the most cutting-edge axe men in jazz. Juho Laitinen is a distinguished classical cellist.