On this extraordinary day, which occurs once every four years, we embark on a journey back to the most beautiful times of jazz, with that sparkle and elegance we primarily associate with Glenn Miller, his Orchestra, and the magnificent American brass musicians from the 1940s to the 1960s. However, instead of heading to the USA, our journey takes us to Scandinavia during the same period, following the musical preferences of Tero Lindberg - today's Golden Trumpet of Finland. While we were working on his interview for the Brass Stories project, in his responses emerged several completely unfamiliar to me names of  the second half of the 20th century Scandinavian popular music artists. Musicians that Tero spoke of with deep respect and admiration. Thus, a curious list of ideas came to light, which we will be pleased to present as a series of articles in the “Artwistic” section of our website. The first of these we share today - 29.02.2024 - celebrating Tero Lindberg's birthday. Because as he wrote, "I’m a big fan of old school trumpet music from the 50's and 60’s, of all these glorious sounds and melodies. The trumpet used to be a really popular instrument and every country had their own Golden Trumpet in those times. In Finland we also had a really popular trumpet artist named Jørgen Petersen. He was my real idol when I was younger...”

Born in 1931 in Denmark, Jørgen Petersen is one of the iconic figures in Finnish popular music from the second half of the 20th century. A trumpeter, composer, producer, big band conductor, arranger, and sound engineer, he is among the brightest stars of Finnish jazz. After a brief flirtation with the violin, he chose to play the trumpet. Jørgen began his professional career at the age of just 14. Due to his age and short stature, he earned the nickname Lil (Little One), which remained his artistic pseudonym throughout his stage career.

In 1957, Lil-Jørgen Petersen decided to move from Denmark to Finland. A significant part of Petersen's career is associated with Finland's first record company PSO. For 25 years, between 1958 and 1983, he worked at PSO as a recording producer, arranger, and sound manager. As a performer, the career of Finland's first Golden Trumpet is linked to all the key ensembles in the country during those brilliant times for classic jazz, when countless things were happening for the first time.

Lil-Jørgen Petersen is a long-standing principal trumpeter of the Dance Orchestra of Finnish Radio. The ensemble was founded in 1958, and during the 1960s and 1970s, it was the most popular orchestra in the country, performing dozens of concerts and making numerous recordings for Yleisradio, the national radio and television company. 

Roni Krank's Band is another iconic pop-jazz ensemble, whose first trumpet is Lil-Jørgen. The band records at Finnvox - the first recording studio in Finland, which has its own dedicated building (1965) and facilities for producing its own vinyl records. In fact, all major Finnish musicians have recorded at Finnvox during the second half of the 20th century.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Jørgen Petersen was among the 16 musicians in the first truly internationally recognised Finnish big band: UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra. Founded in 1975, the ensemble focuses on Finnish jazz music and performers and has a fascinating history that we will likely recount separately. Here, we will only mention that its repertoire today includes around 3000 pieces and over 60 album releases.

But let us return to Jørgen Petersen - the first Golden Trumpet of Finland. His rise as a solo musician began in 1961 with his first album The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, which became extremely popular in the USA. His enormous success in Finland came in 1964 when Petersen made a new arrangement of the song Puhelinlangat laulaua (“The Phone is Ringing”) for Katri Helena - one of the most beloved singers in Finnish popular music even today. The arrangement and interpretation were so well received by the audience that the song won a gold record almost immediately. The collaboration between the musicians continued until the end of the 1960s, during which they created several more of Katri Helena's most famous songs from that period together.

Jørgen Petersen has released around 15 albums, in which he is not only a performer but also an arranger or composer. Some of his most beautiful arrangements are based on traditional Finnish melodies – a wonderful example is his album Jørgen, released by PSO in 1971. 

Petersen achieved his greatest commercial success in the early 1980s with the albums "The Golden Trumpet I" (1981) and "The Golden Trumpet II" (1982). With their elegant sound and stylish arrangements reflecting the brilliance of classic jazz, both albums earned gold discs for sales and remain just as beautiful and inspiring today. Unfortunately, Jørgen Petersen's career as a trumpeter came to an abrupt end in 1987 due to a serious illness. In 2007, the Finnish Heritage Jazz Association (member of the Finnish Jazz Federation) awarded him the Louis Armstrong Prize. Jørgen Petersen passed away in 2009 in Helsinki. But his music lives on…

This article is available in Bulgarian and in Dutch