The basic personnel: PERTTI MUSTONEN, CO; JOUKO KESKIMÄKI, TB;
PEKKA PERJO, P; TIMO PELTONIEMI, BJO; SEET JAAKOLA, DR;

One of the original members, Tapani Renkonen, in fact the only one who has continuously been serving the band from the very beginning, has retired in 2006 and joined even more closely to the "Jassper" band, which stays for the retired ones.

JUSSI VALTO, tuuba - in memoriam

After the late Jussi Valto it was very hard to find a new man to this post. We had to use several temporary bassists during our rehearsals and performings. Then it was a great pleasure for us to have a really outstanding man to the task - Pekka Sarmanto, who has won lots of global references, too.

Pirjo Bergström has been for years our own vocalist but she happens to have had so much other interests on the theatre field so that no time was left for jazz - we had to seek also a new vocalist. During the last year we have been pleased to have opportunity to perform with both Hannah Wilson and Marle Mikkola. Depending on the situation each of them can perform with us nowadays.

Old Time Jazz Band was founded in 1957 and is the oldest group in its genre still performing in Finland. It concentrates on traditional jazz. Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton were the main sources of inspiration. The music is based on collective improvisation, the main feature of genuine New Orleans jazz, and includes many rare numbers made famous by Great Jazz Pioneers. Today many own compositions have been added to the repertoire but the "Old Time Style" has been carefully preserved.
Two of the musicians who were involved in founding the OTJB in 1957 are still playing with the band. That long-standing companionship ensures the familiar, firm and original sound of the band.

Old Time Jazz Band has been performing regularly in Finland and abroad over the last two decades.

In 1984, the band published the first LP with Reine Rimon on vocals. The year 1986 marked a turning point in the history of OTJB when it performed at the 17th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as the only European band invited. The second LP was cut in NO on the very same tour with the speciality to have also well-known New Orleans musicians, Michael White and Gregg Stafford, as solists on some tracks.

In 1997 the band published its first CD, "OLD TIME JAZZ", with Pirjo Bergström on vocals to solemnize our 40th anniversary. Pirjo Bergström, has a fresh relation to jazz. The band members discovered her as a jazz vocalist in 1995 when she was performing in a theatre drama of Billie Holiday's life.

The Finnish Jazz Organization rewarded OTJB with "Andania"-prize for the outstanding work in declaring the traditional jazz message to the Finnish public.

Lately Gospel music has found its way to the band's repertoire, too. Pirjo's deep and powerful interpretation has become familiar to many people in Finland. The band has been invited to play Gospel in over 50 churches. Our fourth recording, "OLD TIME GOSPEL", took place live in the wooden church of Pukkila, 1999.

The founder members, Pertti Mustonen and Tapani Renkonen, have made the arrangements for the band, although there isn't very much to be arranged because every member has in principle the right to interpret the tune with his personal mood at the moment within the chords of the composition. That is the law to keep collective improvisation fresh and relaxing.
The new compositions have mostly been made by Pertti Mustonen.

To celebrate the band's 45th anniversary OTJB has recorded a new CD which consists only of own compositions more accurately, entirely by our cornetist Pertti Mustonen.

Back to OTJB-page.