As he shares thoughts about this album of his sounding out his poetry in a musical setting, Markku Salo is sequestered, with his wife, Susanna, at their summer place in Pieksämäki, about three hours drive northeast of Helsinki. Markku muses. “I don’t consider myself a musical person, I can’t play any instrument.” But even as he speaks, he’s listening to the percussion of precipitation on the roof of his verandah, and to the brassy honk of a swan family wandering through a field nearby. Markku listens with the same ears and heart which have evolved him, at age 64, into a beloved and vital polymath in the tantalizing jazz scene of his native Finland, where he’s known as The Jazz Preacher, according to Rent Romus, the musical co-pilot of this recorded voyage. “Markku arranged our entire tour of Finland in 2023,” notes Romus. “And he’s always been an avid presenter of the music there and has done countless hours of interviews with performing artists, especially those in the creative fields of music who’ve come to Finland.” The Finnish tradition of Itkuja, or lament, was explored by Romus, a Finnish-American, and Heikki Koskinen, a Turku-born expatriate trumpeter, in their previous recorded project. Americans involved in the recording and those who listened to it learned that for the Finns, lament has powers of healing and happiness. The same applies here to the poetical and musical invocations of the departed subjects of these Elegies, the Lost Friends. Like jazz itself, the project transcends geographic and cultural boundaries while celebrating the resources of Finland, the United States, and the roots of melody and rhythm on the continent of Africa.
- Jeff Kaliss, music journalist/author/poet

Markku Salo – spoken word
Heikki "Mike" Kosikinen - kantele, tenor recorder, e-trumpet
Rent Romus - flute, alto saxophone
Heikki Laitinen - kantele, vocals
Otto Eskelinen – alto sax, bandoneon, shakuhachi, flutes
Eero Tikkanen – double bass
Arwi Lind – log drums, percussion Markku Salo – oratory



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