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Two gentlemen are to blame for the birth of the orchestra: trombonist Eero Rämö and the headmaster of Harjula Civic Institute, Mr. Eero Toukonen. The former encouraged the latter to establish a big band study circle at his institute, and he agreed. In the autumn of 1984 the first group of musicians got together at the Niemi day-care center. To the great relief of teacher Martti Peippo this line-up greatly resembled a big band. Thus was established a sound starting point for the activities. Elementary repertoire based on Basie-style printed arrangements was practised during the first season. The players also tried to get accustomed to phrasing ideas differing from what you’d find in traditional wind band music. At the beginning of the rehearsals there was always a strenuous transportation of the instruments, music stands and other equipment from the store-room of the boiler-house – and vice-versa at the end of the session. These operations took about a third of the rehearsal time. The first gig was in May 1985 at the spring festival of Harjula Civic Institute. After having played approximately one year the band was starting to have enough confidence to call itself Lahti Big Band, according to its home town. This also created some pressure, because the audiences would no longer need to guess where the clumsy dilettantes on stage were coming from. During the second year of its existence the band signed up the local blues artist, Mr. Pentti ”Baby-Boy” Varhama, as soloist. The arrangements were tailor-made by Mr. Peippo, who also contributed some compositions of his own to the repertoire. A rehearsal room downtown was found in the autumn of 1986, at last! The room had no other users, which was wonderful. It was possible to leave all equipment in the right places, where they could stay until the next rehearsal. Due to this, the artistic level of the orchestra was raised at least five steps in just a few months. The repertoire was still based on Basie-style material. Lahti Big Band arranged the first ”Jazz at the Marketplace” festival in 1989. In spite of terror among the townspeople a tent was raised at the centre of town. Jazz was played and beer was sold there… shocking! The festival lasted nine days already then, and it has been renovated every year ever since. The tent just keeps growing… Older pieces were creeping into the repertoire of LBB little by little. The music library started to consist of hits by old maestros like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw… This really authentic and rare material was copied from recordings by Mr. Peippo. The band even had new suits made. They were copied from a 1935 picture of the Benny Goodman Big Band. Swing music was becoming more and more interesting. The articulation of music in the thirties was rather peculiar from the modern point of view. It would require sacrifices from everyone to play in such a style, because it would be difficult to master several styles in a sovereign manner. For an amateur player it is almost too much to master even one. Nevertheless, after a short period of consideration the LBB decided to make a sacrifice and take white swing from the thirties and forties as their prevailing musical style. The band seemed to have good potential (or at least the clothing) for that. An old Finnish proverb tells us that the more you eat, the more your appetite grows. This is what happened to the LBB. In the beginning one could not imagine how swing would lead the band more and more towards the original values and practices. The orchestra plays acoustically, like they used to do in the old days. The repertoire has also expanded considerably. Luckily, there have been local vocalists with a style suitable for LBB. Mr. Antti Muukkonen debuted as vocalist in 1995, Mrs. Elina Pakkanen in 1996, Miss Laura Peltoniemi in 2002 and Mr. Riku Rokkanen in 2004. An additional group of singers has occasionally joined the soloists to form a little choir in the manner of early forties. A 1940 Gibson L-7 is used as rhythm guitar and the genuine Slingerland Radio King drumkit also comes from the forties. Similar drums were used by Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa and other cool cats from the era! Only a single microphone is used during the gigs, mainly to amplify the vocals. Every detail has been taken into consideration to make the performance of LBB as close to the originals as possible. The band has had some 20-25 performances every year. Most of the gigs have been domestic, but the most distant shows have taken place in Japan and USA.
Martti Peippo
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