For the Holiday Season we (me and my sweet kids, Lumi and Milo) travelled again)to Italy, spending time both in Rome and Lecce and other spots in the fantastic Salento. It was a lovely trip, had finally some time for chill down with my bunnies. Some highlights from that trip: 
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Dear all! 

I wish you have had a wonderful start for this year. Now we're in mid-January and in Finland we're having a real winter, which will probably continue still for quite a few months. Anyways, I'm excited to get to work and to do new projects and visits, and all that! I'm also writing new music, since I have a plan to record a new album this spring. Also- I have promised myself to put out the 2 albums that have been recorded already a while ago: with my Global Unit (Greg Burk, Ronan Guilfoyle and Carlos Ezequiel) and a latter one with The Nordic MoFos, feat. Eric Ineke (Mikael Jakobsson, Heikko Remmel, Eric Ineke).

As per new dates for concerts and workshops I will keep you waiting still a bit, since the dates are still moving.. and as I am also back to my university work at Karelia UAS in Joensuu, I will need to reserve the needed time for that as well. But I will keep you posted soon!

Enjoy the bit-more-calm winter time and have a wonderful week!

Love,
​Pekka

Dear all! It's been quite a while since my previous post, so I will go back a few months very fast here first. 
The last summer was really nice with lots of activities and also some well-needed time for chilling with my great kids in Italy! I performed in Salento (the Southern part of Puglia) with my musician friends from the region, like pianist Francesco Negro, bassist Matteo Maria Maglio, and others. Salento is a heaven, cannot wait to get back!!
In July I took part (again) at the IASJ Jazz Meeting, this time in Siena, Tuscany, Italy (third time already there) and it was great. Right after the IASJ week I performed two nights in Rome with the greats Benito Gonzalez,  Alessandro D'Anna and Francesco Ponticelli. The following morning we picked the legendary Eric Ineke from the airport and headed over to Pescara for a week of great music and hanging. We performed as a quartet on the last day of the Pescara Int'l SummerJazz Campus and Pescara Jazz Festival with Benito, Eric and bassist Maurizio Rolli. 
I still continued my Italian trip and performed many times in Rome and again in Salento with many great musicians, like pianists Roberto Tarenzi and Domenico Sanna, bassists Stefano Cantarano and Stefano Battaglia and others. So very cool ! (Even when the temperatures tended to be around +40 C !:):) 

After my return back to Finland in August I started my teaching (and commuting) routine at Karelia UAS in Joensuu. But I've had really super nice projects this fall and still continue have more, so I feel really blessed to be able to work with all these talented people! 

In October I had a chance to perform in Italy again, and I enjoyed a lot playing with, for example, R. Tarenzi, Roberto Pistolesi, A.D'Anna, S.Cantarano and others. I also made lots of new friends and heard some great concerts. Rome is happening!!
Late October/early November I had the pleasure of hosting the great guitarist and composer Peter Hertmans from Belgium.
We played a concert in Piimälinna, Joensuu, with Tuure Koski on bass and Tuomas Timonen on drums. And still last week I had another concert at the Karelia UAS 25th Anniversary Celebration with some of my most talented students. It was lots of fun!
In a couple of weeks it will be my turn to visit LUCA School of Arts in Leuven, Belgium where Peter Hertmans is heading the Jazz Department. I will be performing at least on DEC 8 at ARCHIDUC, BRUSSELS, with Peter Hertmans (guitar), Sal La Rocca (bass), Lionel Beuvens (drums), and as well at
​PAVLOV, DEN HAAG, with Eric Ineke (drums), Juraj Stanik (piano, Marius Beets on Dec 10.

Hope to see some of you over there! Thanks so much for reading again, have a fantastic week and continued success! Love and peace!

DECEMBER, HAVANA, CUBA! 
I have to confess... I had been planning to travel to Cuba since my high school years (yes!) and therefore, hmm .. some years had passed by without me entering this beautiful island in the Caribbean.. having played and studied, listened to a lot - and later on also taught Cuban music a lot, it was surely a surreal feeling to finally see and feel Havana.. But how cool is was! I ha d the chance to meet and play with a lot of great musicians, and to hear lots of wonderful music. Also the hangs were really cool, and I even had time to briefly visit a near-by beach one day! Generally speaking, I was quite busy anyhow.. I think I played 5 concerts, 2 rehearsals, several sound checks, and 2 lengthy jam sessions in 6 days! But most of it was just fun. 

LA PLAZA FESTIVAL DE JAZZ was the festival where I was invited to play, and it turned to be a really cool festival with lots of great musicians, including some top US artists, like Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard, Snarky Puppy, etc. But for me it was just enough to see Omara Portuondo sing with the legendary Chucho Valdes at the Teatro Melia on the opening night! I also enjoyed a lot listening to many great musicians from Cuba (also from outside Havana). So much music!

The first real concert for me in Havana, was at the Fabrica del Arte Cubano, which is a big place with different stages and bars and restaurants, situated in an old factory. Like in Berlin! It was very cool, and even the sound was actually really professionally handled. Only that the audience tended to be a bit loud, lots of foreigners who were perhaps more into the hang-out and the bars, than the music. But by the end of our set we did gather a good, active and supportive audience for us, so the rest didn't matter anymore. We had rehearsed pretty long the same day, so we knew the music, and it was great to play! Abel Marcel played a beautiful intro to one of our tunes, and Jorge Reyes played great bass! And some Ron Cubano backstage! :):) 


Then the next concert that was materialized, was at the Pabellon Cuba, on 23rd Street (Calle 23). A Beautiful and a big place with several stages, we played at the 'Garden' . It was totally packed, and despite some very last-minute schedule-changes, it was a great experience. The audience really dug our music, and I enjoyed a lot! Also met some very cool, new people afterwards. 

On the same night, after the Pabellon Cuba concert, we played at the Habana Libre Hotel, which used to be a Hilton, before the name-change. It has a different kind of class than most other fine hotels I've seen, since there's original art in many places, plus the design is somewhat unique. We played a set of most standards, some 1hour 20 minutes straight, and it was great fun!

We played at the main - or final concert of the festival, at the  Casa de la Cultura de Plaza, which is not exactly a 'casa', since it is like a huge outdoor concert place, but nevertheless, a fantastic place to hang, and to play as well. Thsi concert had to be somewhat short, since the time was limited for all, except the last performer. I had a great time playing, and also hanging and listening to the great music afterwards!

For the last night there was a great jam session at the Jazz Club Corner Cafè with lots of both Cuban and international artists. It was great fun, and such a cool way to end the visit in La Habana!!