Brass and jazz: the Andania excursion and the sounding of Finnish-American relationships in the newly independent Finland

Abstract On June 4, 1926, Finnish Americans travelling on the S/S Andania arrived in Helsinki for a summer vacation in the newly independent Finland. While the visit enabled the migrants to spend time with family and friends in their original homeland, the excursion became a transatlantic encounter that still resonates in Finnish musical life. On board was the Andania ’s orchestra, ‘Suomi-soittokunta’ (Finland orchestra), and a smaller assembly of its members, the S/S Andania American Jazz Band. The latter is still remembered in scholarly and popular writings for bringing American-style jazz to Finland. To amplify the jazz historiography, however, this article introduces the band’s soloist, Ms. Cecile McKee Hazen Jacobson. This article keeps an ear open towards music’s role in social and political ordering of transatlantic relations and argues that the music of the Andania excursion offered an audible Finnish-American alliance with an enduring jazz imprint.