Saxophonist/composer Pekka Pylkkänen has worked with many orchestras and groups during his career, and as a sideman has also shared the stage with greats such as Vince Mendoza, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Bob Mintzer, Dave Liebman, Michael Abene, Odean Pope, and many others.
During his earlier career he worked several years full-time with the ‘National Jazz Orchestra of Finland’ – UMO Jazz Orchestra, with which he also sometimes performed modern contemporary music, and was often featured as a soloist.
As a leader he has performed in more than 50 countries (Finland, Denmark, Norway, USA, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Korea, China and Japan, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa etc.) He has appeared as a leader/soloist in over 1000 concerts during the last 10 years, most of them outside Finland. His appearances range from clubs to concert halls and major festivals, such as Hong Kong Jazz Festival, Beijing Jazz Festival, Trondheim Jazz Festival, National Arts Festival (South Africa), Lima Jazz, Providencia Festival de Jazz (Santiago, Chile), Yokohama Jazz Promenade, Yarasum Jazz Festival, Beijing Concert Hall, The Spring Hall (Seoul/Korea), Daegu Cultural Center/Korea, La Pavillion Blanco (Cordoba, Argentina), Beijing Music Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, etc etc