Markku Johansson (b. 1949) was one of the founding members of UMO Jazz Orchestra in 1975. Soon after that he travelled to U.S. to get more education in jazz and after returning to Finland he continued his career in the trumpet section of UMO and as an active studiomusician and arranger. In the end of the decade he started to lead a quintet with pianist Olli Ahvenlahti. His first own album Funny Tricks But Beautiful (Finnlevy) was released in 1982, the second one Blue Echoes (Finnlevy) in 1986 and the more acoustic third one Markku Johansson & Friends (Kompass) in 1989. On the popular music field Johansson visited in the Pepe ja Paradise band in the 1970s but he has also done lots of work as an arranger and a studiomusician for the National Broadcast Company and MTV Channel.

In the beginning of 1990s the work speed of Johansson was pretty intense: he recorded a ballad album Tenderly (Bluebird 1990) with a studio orchestra consisting of Finnish top jazz musicians, toured around Finland and Germany with his own quintet and recorded the album Exorbitant (JMP Records 1994) as the soloist of the German HR Big Band. The activity of the trumpetist was awarded with the Georgie (Yrjö) Prize in 1993.

Markku Johansson was the first artistic leader of UMO after the death of Esko Linnavalli. During his period in 1992-1993 the big band widened its musical palette by i.a. doing co-operation with composer Eero Hämeenniemi. In the 21st century Johansson has been busy with Vantaa Pops that he conducted from 1988 to 2009.