Eero Koivistoinen (b. 1946), one of the most famous Finnish jazzmusicians and saxophonists of all time, stepped into the field of jazz music in the middle of 1960's.  Since then he has been one of the most trusted and distinguished jazzmusicians in Finland. He is known from his versatility and creativity and his skills strech from powerful jazzsolos to extensive compositions for orchestras.

Koivistoinen became interested in music at a young age and started to take classical violin lessons. When he was 16-years-old he started to play alto saxophone, later also tenor and soprano saxophones, and the violin was left aside. Koivistoinen was already a familiar face in the jazz scene of Helsinki when he was studying saxophone and composing in Sibelius Academy in his 20's.

The first band for Koivistoinen was a trio formed with drummer Edward Vesala and bassist Pekka Sarmanto. This trio was one of the first groups that tried out the possibilities of avantgardism and free jazz in Finland. In 1967 Koivistoinen's skills were awarded as the young Finnish Jazz Federation decided to give the first Yrjö, Georgie, Award in the history to Koivistoinen and so was Koivistoinen chosen as the Jazzmusician of the Year. In 1969 Koivistoinen continued winning as he came to the first place in the Montreaux Jazz Band Competition in Switzerland with his quartet. This prize has been seen as the first international award ever given to Finnish jazz and thanks to this, Koivistoinen's quartet got the opportunity to perform also at the Newport Jazz Festival in United States.

In the beginning of 1970's Koivistoinen developped his composing skills by studying a semester at the Sibelius Academy and three semesters in the prestigious Berlee College of Music in Boston, U.S..  In 1981 Koivistoinen won the arranger award of the European Broadcasting Union in the Nording competition held in Jersey with his work "Ultima Thule" and in 1983 the record company Pro Records that Koivistoinen had founded in the beginning of 1980s released an album with the same name. In 1987 he also won the big band composing competition of the Foundation for the Promotion of Finnish Music with his work "Kukonpesä".

UMO Jazz Orchestra has been an important instrument for Koivistoinen since it's establishment in 1975. Already the first release of the big band, Our Latin Friends (Konserttikeskus 1976) included compositions by the saxophonist and Koivistoinen might be today the most recorded composer by UMO Jazz Orchestra. In the middle of the 1990's Koivistoinen started to compose more than play the saxophone and he also worked as the artistic leader of UMO in 1996-1998. As a conductor and a groupleader he is highly appreciated both here in Finland and abroad, e.g. in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, South America, Estonia and Lithuania.

Besides his many other projects, Koivistoinen has recently showed a great interest towards African music and in 1998 he released an album, Eero Koivistoinen and Senegalese Drums, with the Senegalese musicians. At the same time Koivistoinen has however interpreted also Finnish folksongs as stylish jazzversions: in 2002 Silence Records released Koivistoinen's album Utu, that consisted of traditional Finnish folk songs arranged for a jazzquartet and in 2003 Silence Records released an album Suomalainen where vocalist Johanna Iivanainen sang music arranged by Koivistoinen and new compositions of the saxophonist. In 2007 the band of Iivanainen and Koivistoinen released another album Lennosta kii! (Backstage Alliance) which is also a combination of Finnish popular music and Koivistoinen's jazzcompositions.

Besides his own projects and UMO, Koivistoinen has composed lots of music for television, films and radio plays. Radio symphony orchestra ordered him a orchestra series based on the music of pianist Thelonious Monk that was realised in 2003 carrying the name Round About Monk. Koivistoinen has had time to play as a sideman and a visitor as well. One of these visits have been with one of the most successful acoustic groovejazzbands in Finland recently, with The Five Corners Quintet.