Jukka Haavisto - September Song (2022)

Jukka Haaviston originally introduced the Hohner harmonica to the magical world of music, with which he played his first gig. Jukka received the harmonica as a Christmas present when he was nine years old. On the same Christmas holiday of our winter war, crushing information came home: Jukka's lieutenant father Yrjö had been killed in a grenade attack in Taipaleenjoki.

However, the family’s life had to go on, and a couple of years later, the musically apparently talented boy managed to overdo the accordion used by the family bought by Senja’s mother. The acquisition was Cyclop-branded, with its bass and treble contacts attached to the bellows with hooks. Jukka never forgets the embarrassing moment when, at a school convention, the accordion hooks betrayed the jubilant parchment gang.

The cyclops were corrected, and Jukka developed his playing skills diligently. According to him, at some point a note had appeared on the notice board in the stairwell of a residential building in Kauhava, which read: "The accordion is bought - preferably from this staircase". Let's believe the story of anyone who wants to, but Jukka's rhyme only grew, and he cast his first wedding gig in 1942 at the respectable age of 12. However, the repertoire was still so narrow at that time that the Emma waltz had to be performed three times.

There was also a demand for music in Ostrobothnia's wrestling competitions, where a young accordionist bounced off the sounds of wrestlers' personal ventilation.

The experiences of childhood and adolescence naturally turned into the life of a professional gig musician as Jukka grew up. In addition to his civilian work, he toured countries and mantles in various ensembles for years - as accompanist to Henry Theel, among others. The range of instruments also became more diverse, as Jukka also became acquainted with the secrets of the trumpet and the Vibraphone. In addition to dance music, the repertoire also naturally included jazz and especially the American swing. The orchestras of the musician's career included Happy Swing Band, Jukka Haavisto Band and Haavisto Swingers.

Jukka, who has since been awarded the title of Music Adviser, and his wife Ulla spent a couple of decades on the Spanish Sunshine Coast, where Jukka was a driving force in the Andalusian Swing Band of Finnish background. It’s hard to forget the happiness and pride he felt as he stood on stage in the middle of his orchestra. Humorous interludes were also involved, and at the time they were handled sovereignly by a musician who was mostly dedicated to playing the Vibraphone.

Jukka's characteristic of our many trips abroad has also come to mind: He always gave money to street players - regardless of the quality of the call. "I have to help colleagues…"

Jukka last performed in public in February 2020 after passionately devoting himself to music for as many as 80 years - and pulling out all the gigs with full emotion! The duration and quality of his career are second to none in the history of Finnish music.