Olli Ojajärvi (b. 1971) started to play the saxophone in a number of junior big bands in his early teens. After his studies at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory of Oulunkylä, Helsinki, and Sibelius High School, the sax took Ojajärvi to the jazz department of Sibelius Academy in 1991. By this time, Ojajärvi already participated actively in the music scene of Helsinki, but did not limit his repertoire to jazz music exclusively. He worked, for example, with the rock group, Don Huonot, and the singer, Samuli Edelmann, both live and in studio.

In the late-1990s, Ojajärvi would be encountered more and more frequently on stage with jazz artists and bands. His first major collaboration was with drummer, Mikko Hassinen, in the latter’s group, Argus, and 1997 saw the saxophonist perform at the UMO Young Soloists’ concert. This was an evident success, since soon UMO sought the young saxophonist to join the big band, and, indeed, Ojajärvi has shared the post of the 2nd tenor saxophone player with Manuel Dunkel since 2000. In the beginning of the 21st century, Ojajärvi's own group, So So, came into being. The band combined groovy organ jazz with clubby rhythms, even flirting with atmospherics of ambient music, which later led them to call their musical style "drum'n'organ".

Apart from So So, Ojajärvi has worked, together with the saxophonist Jussi Kannaste, as a driving force in Kannaste-Ojajärvi Quartet. Here, his rootsy tenor saxophone meets Kannaste’s more lyrical touch in a lively dialogue. The group went on a tour organised by the Finnish Jazz Federation in December 2004 and released their debut album, First Draft (Terravox), the next year. Also, Ojajärvi has a trio of his own, Olli Ojajärvi Trio, and the group’s first release, Out of Mind, came out on Ricky-Tick Records in 2009. In addition to active performing, Ojajärvi has taught the saxophone in both the Pop & Jazz Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy. In 2003 he was awarded with the Josef Kaartinen Prize by the Finnish Saxophone Society.

ed. Annamari Innanen 5.2.2014