Koivistoinen, Eero: Picture In Three Colours LP

For a long time already, I had been dreaming of a recording session in New York. The dream came true on the 14th and 15th of November, 1983. I had been thinking of a classic line-up: trumpet and tenor saxophone + guitar, piano, bass, and drums. My good old friend, the bassist Ron McClure, promised his help with contacting the musicians. For the drums we got Jack De Johnette, who played together with Ron in the famous Charles Lloyd Quartet. John Scofield, my fellow student in Berklee College of Music, was going to play guitar. Sco had just been called for the band of Miles Davis. Jim McNeely, the pianist, was familiar to me from Pori Jazz Festival where he had played with Ted Curson. Jim was a member of the Stan Getz Quartet at the time. The brilliant Tom Harrel was to play trumpet. We got all the musicians we had wished for: we had gathered a real dream team!

We rehearsed for the recording in McClure´s living room in West 87th Street. Vanguard Studios in 23rd Street was where the recording took place. Jack´s energy and creativity forced us others to be alert to keep track in his wild whirlpools. David Baker, the recording engineer, was active in a good way and gave us some reasonable hints. Playing together with these masters in the studio was one of the greatest experiences in my career up to then.

I had written new pieces for the recording and a few older ones were included, too. Second Thought was a new version of my composition called Near But Faraway. All the music we recorded could not be put on one LP record. Arctic Blues, Algo Fresco and Sunburst were left out. I had just established my own label, Pro Records. Picture in Three Colours was the very first record of the label.

Core Records in Germany released the album as a vinyl version in 1988, and at the same time on a then new CD format. The extra bonus pieces were included on the CD. Algo Fresco, and alternative takes of Patana and Second Thought were published with the Rytmi magazine in 1990, on the CD titled Extra Picture – New York Sessions. Svart Records is now – finally – releasing all the material in its entirety.

While in New York, I had taken some pictures with my new camera. I manipulated a photo of skyscrapers and got three hues on it: a picture in three colours. It was used as the cover picture of the record. The new edition of the record has a fresher cover: another picture by me, from a different perspective of New York. It is here that I want to come back again.