Severi Pyysalo, vibraphone
Ville Herrala, double bass

Vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo (b. 1967) has remained at the top of Finnish jazz scene for three decades. He came to wider attention at the 1984 Pori Jazz festival, where both Sarah Vaughan and Paquito D’Rivera asked him to join them on stage. Since his breakthrough, Pyysalo has been touring in Finland and abroad with different line-ups, the most well-known of which must be Perko-Pyysalo Poppoo. In addition to jazz, Pyysalo has composed music for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and for the television adaptation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Pyysalo was the recipient of the 1988 Yrjö Award, given to an extraordinary Finnish jazz musician, and in 1993 he was selected as the European Jazz Soloist of the Year.

Since 2000, Pyysalo has played extensively in the projects of guitarist Niklas Winter. He has also featured in Otra Vez!, the group combining jazz and Argentinian tango. At the 2017 Hanko Music Festival, Pyysalo will be running a jazz improvisation workshop as part of the summer music course.

Ville Herrala (b. 1979) is a double bass player originally from Turku. Herrala has played in several different groups both in Finland and abroad and gained critical acclaim as a versatile and talented jazz musician.

Herrala first studied classical piano at the Conservatory of Turku from 1986 onwards under Irma Talvio. He later moved on to the classical guitar, bass guitar and classical double bass. Herrala graduated with a Master of Music degree from the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy in spring 2010, majoring in double bass. Before graduating he had gained success for example with Tetra and Reactor-5 in the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition.

Today, Ville Herrala is one the most sought after and versatile jazz musicians in Finland. He has played with several noted artists, including Jukka Perko, Severi Pyysalo, Jukkis Uotila, Eero Koivistoinen, Otto Donner, Jarmo Savolainen, UMO and Karita Mattila. His international collaborations include those with Jerry Bergonzi, Phil Markovitz, John Tchicai and Cuong Vu.