download Esa Pietilä Trio bio (pdf)
download Esa Pietilä FOUR STREAMS bio (pdf)
download Esa Pietilä solo saxophone bio (pdf)

Already at young age Esa Pietilä´s playlist included a lot of  avantgarde and freejazz artists like Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Orrnette Coleman and of course John Coltrane. The musical travel for him was to begin - the route led him to begin to study jazz in general in his teens & young adult years, playing in many big bands, national small band projects etc., and to study at Sibelius Academy Jazz Departement, Helsinki (years 1987-1996), and to take part on numerous masterclasses and private lessons of e.g. David Liebman in USA and others.

Later on Esa was to switch back to his “first love situation” - to perform & express mostly the avantgarde and free side of jazz…

His playing and recordings has been thanked by such internationally well-known critics, reviewers and editors like Stuart Nicholson (UK), Laurence Donohue-Greene (AllAboutJazz-New York), Don Williamson (Jazzreview.com), Robert Spencer (Cadence USA), Matthew Wuethrich (ALL ABOUT JAZZ) etc.

Esa´s original style of avant garde / impro / freejazz and various projects of his - trio -  quartet with ECM artist Iro Haarla - solo saxophone concerts etc., have stabilized his position performing on the national / international jazz circuit, and have led him to play in USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Iceland, England, USA, Australia, New Zeeland, Brazil and Cuba… He has performed with the names like Michael Jefry Stevens, Mathias Eick, Iro Haarla, Mike Nock, Claudio Fasoli, Heiri Kaenzig, Jeff Siegel, John Esposito, Anders Begcrantz, Odean Pope, Raoul Björkenheim, Brian Melvin, Markku Ounaskari, Uffe Krokfors, Filip Augustson, Hilmar Jensson, Arthur Kell, Johannes Mössinger, Kjartan Valdemarsson, Fabian Kuratli, Jarmo Savolainen, Jimmy Knepper, Roland Vasquez and Erling Kroner. Esa has also stood on stage with many global jazz luminaries, e.g. Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley, David Liebman, Vince Mendoza, Maria Schneider, Ray Anderson, Steve Slagle, Rick Margitza...

Recently Esa has performed mostly with his 4 Streams Quartet, with his improvised solo saxophone concerts, newly born "Brain Inventory Trio" together with USA based pianist MIchael Jefry Stevens and cellist Juho Laitinen from Finland, duo with NYC drummer Jeff Siegel, trio with drummer Mika Kallio & Swiss bass player Heiri Kaenzig, trio with Estonian guitarist Jaak Sooäär & MIka kallio (drs), duo with German pianist Johannes Mössinger. Esa also performs with a Finland based freejazz group Loco-Motif hosted by pianist Iro Haarla and Uffe Krokfors and with Swedish-Finnish cooperational quartet called “Comet”. Additional projects also revolve around with his groups - international quests added every now and then to  the groups. A Scandinavian quintet  “Nordik Kollektiv” was a project in 2005 with trumpet player Mathias Eick from Norway and a piano player Kjartan Valdemarsson from Iceland. The group performed a big tour in europe, spring 2005.

In 2007 Pietilä started a series of  totally improvised solo saxophone concerts, which will continue annually in Finland & abroad. In 2009 he released the album "Karhea" - a complitely improvised cd of solo recordings.

Along with his engagements at international festivals, Esa has also been a regular visiting teacher and lecturer at annual IASJ symposium led by Davib Liebman.

"Pietilä´s uncompromising approach to music, search for new angles and refusal to walk the trodden path betray his lofty ambitions. He injects immediacy and surprise into his playing by going for unplanned gems that like-minded interaction can discover through spontaneous playing. His interests are as much about implication - the spaces between the dots he punches out - as about literal adherence to pre-written composition".

"His Trio with Ulf Krokfors and Markku Ounaskari which explores new improvisational fields of freejazz expression, has been performing with success in many Scandinavian and European festivals & clubs on the recent years. The Trio´s openness for free improvisation and the elaboration upon the conventional roles of their instruments, highlights a larger goal: creating a unified group identity"

As a composer, Esa has composed music not only for the aforementioned orchestras, but also for numerous jazz productions by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation YLE, for solo instruments, string quartet, saxophone quartet, big bands, various mixed instrumentation groups and a multitude of national projects ranging from dance theater pieces to documentary films.

Along peforming his music, Esa Pietilä finds time to give saxophone lessons and masterclasses on improvisation which he has done eg. Berklee School of Music Boston, Musichochschule Lucern Switzwrland, Privatuniversitet Vienna, Malmö University Sweden, Tonlistarskol Reykjavik, Jazz Music department Graz Austria...