"Hey - Pippi Longstocking..." But wait... stop...! What does this strong, courageous little girl from Sweden have to do with this? Aren't we rather in Finland, the home country of Tuija Komi, who now resides in Munich and presents her new album, Midnight Sun? Peppi Pitkätossu (pronounced as written) is the Finnish name for Pippi Longstocking, and Tuija Komi transforms this classic children's song into a true jazz anthem. She lends this generational catchy tune a musically new and brilliant garment, both sensitively and powerfully. Sung in Finnish, she also makes a clear statement about her Finnish heritage with the vocalise sequences—a wonderful variation of classical scat singing. And all Tuija Komi.

This uniqueness, this very personal touch—both vocally and musically, as well as in the arrangements of the pieces—is what gives the entire album its special radiance. Pop classics like "Thank You For The Music" (ABBA), "You Make Me Feel Brand-new" (Simply Red), or "It's Too Late" (Carole King) boldly stand alongside a "Feeling Good" that Nina Simone impressively performed in 1965. She draws from Finnish pop literature ("Suru on kunniavieras") as well as the wonderfully melancholic ballad "Gabriella's Song" from the film "As It Is in Heaven" by the Swede Stefan Nilsson. She tailors a perfectly fitting lyrical garment for the Latin composition "Samba Tzigane" by world-class trumpeter Dusko Goykovich. She closes the album with "If I Had My Life To Live Over," sung by Bob Eberly in 1947, and chooses her fresh composition "Land Of The Midnight Sun" as the opener. Interestingly, this musical homage to her homeland was created in sun-soaked Italy during a songwriting workshop at the Berklee College of Music with 200 people of all nationalities. "This special mix of the South, sun, and internationality—things I really like—probably triggered my homesickness ever so gently and brought me back to my Nordic roots," Tuija says about this song.