Pepa Päivinen Peacepipe (FI)

Saxophonist Pepa Päivinen (b. 1955), who turned 70 in June, completed his first professional recordings as a 20-year-old jazz music student, when he ended up playing alto saxophone and flute on the second solo album of songwriter Frank Robson, Stay Awhile (1976).

However, this wasn’t Päivinen’s only stop along the way, even though he did make a career playing with the UMO Jazz Orchestra for more than thirty years, starting in 1985. In addition to this, he has racked up some three hundred album credits as a studio musician, running the full gamut of musical genres: schlager music, children’s music, pop, rock and blues, not to mention his own jazz.

Päivinen has also made some recordings in his own name, as a bandleader and even as a composer. His first album was Saxigon (1997), although it was composed and produced by his long-term mentor, drummer Edward Vesala. Päivinen’s second album, Umpsukkelis (1999), was more his own work. That year, he won the Jazz Emma Prize for Jazz Recording of the Year, and received the Yrjö Award as Jazz Musician of the Year from the Finnish Jazz Federation.

Päivinen’s most recent recording is Albert Ayler Reawakened (2024), a double album recorded in Helsinki, Kerava and Tampere, where he pays – as a member of a quintet – homage to the musical world of saxophonist Albert Ayler. But now, in 2025, it is once again time for his original compositions. In the heat of last July, Päivinen returned from his numerous sessions to the familiar confines of Helsinki’s famous Finnvox, where he recorded his latest album. This is his thirteenth.

Päivinen’s repertoire for Telakka is based on this new, calmly melodic and pictorial material and his own new ensemble. Or at least new in a formal sense. The quartet, called Pepa Päivinen Peacepipe, appeared for the first time in Vantaa last February, but it is the same ensemble that recorded the albums Tiram Num (2005) and North Pipe (2009), minus the double bassist.

But what is it with all these pipes – last time on his album North Pipe and now the group Peacepipe? Is he some kind of pipe enthusiast? A plumber? Well, no. The name North Pipe doesn’t refer to an actual pipe, but rather is a play on the name of his home Norra Paipis in Sipoo. “It might be a bit on the lame side, but I don’t care,” laughs Päivinen. Peacepipe, on the other hand, doesn’t require any interpretation. “It’s about the struggle for peace. The rattling of sabres is infuriating, even though realities cannot be denied.”