is an Estonian saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He has been called the saxophone king and the calling card of Estonian jazz.Lembit Saarsalu started playing jazz at an early age. In 1965, at the age of 16, he made his debut at the Tallinn International Jazz Festival. Saarsalu worked for many years in the State Philharmonic of the Estonian SSR, where as a paid musician he gave numerous concerts both at home and abroad. In the 1980s, Saarsalu devoted himself completely to jazz.For decades, he has led the musical activities of many local and international ensembles. The most long-lasting and fruitful of his international collaborative projects is the duo with Leonid Vintskevich, a pianist with Russian-Lithuanian roots from Kursk. In 2003, Lembit Saarsalu together with music producer Merle Kollom started a new international jazz music festival Rainbow Jazz (in cooperation with Eesti Kontsert) and a competition for young musicians in Tartu.He is dedicated to introducing jazz music in schools, having performed together with Olav Ehala and other well-known Estonian musicians for more than 40,000 students. Since the fall of 2008, he has been working as a saxophone and ensemble teacher in the rhythm music department of the Heino Eller Tartu School of Music.Eesti Televisioon has made two films from Lembit Saarsalu: "Vana Melodia" and "Kuukiired". In addition, he has performed on Finnish and Spanish television ("Jazz Entre Amigos"). Saarsalu has made numerous LP and CD recordings, nearly 200 recordings for Estonian Radio.Lembit Saarsalu does not limit himself to the narrow frame of jazz - his style of expression ranges from blues and swing to free forms of jazz, his talent for improvisation is manifested in a deeply personal melodic line. When performing in the wider world, Saarsalu has always introduced Estonian national jazz in addition to jazz classics, and in his own creations we can also find a lot of palu inspired by Estonian folk music.Saarsalu has participated in hundreds of festivals in different parts of the world, including Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival (USA), North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland), gave concerts in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa. Saarsalu has collaborated with jazz greats such as Lionel Hampton and his New York Big Band, Elvin Jones, John Stowell, Eve Cornelious, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Volker Frey, Trio X of Sweden (Lennart Simonsson, Per Johansson, Joakim Ekberg) etc. In cooperation with symphony orchestras, he has performed several jazz-symphonic major forms as a saxophone soloist in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and America. Lembit Saarsalu's master courses have taken place at several music universities in the USA, Germany, Finland, including Lionel Hampton School of Music, University of Idaho University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Weber State University, Darmstadt Jazz Institute.During the former Soviet Union, he was repeatedly chosen as the best tenor saxophonist. In 2008, Lembit Saarsalu was awarded the annual prize of the Sound Art Fund of the Estonian Cultural Foundation for the high-level presentation of Estonian jazz music on the international scene. "As a performer of jazz classics, Saarsalu is simply unparalleled, the beauty of the tone and the emotional nuances of his saxophone evoke deep admiration again and again, as well as his ability to shape each song into a colorful musical narrative." Jazzkaar