Pete Petersen first became hooked on Jazz & Blues music as a teenager in Boise, Idaho, where he heard pianist Gene Harris playing in a local club. Pete was much too young to get into the club, so he would sit in the restaurant section and listen from behind the partition.
A few years later in Pete earn a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Pete would go out at night to sit in with the area’s jazz heavyweights, notables like Keith Oxman, Bruno Carr, Ron Miles, and Stefan Karlsson. Pete was a member of groups that were finalists in the Hennessey™ Jazz Search Competitions 2 years in a row. Pete played in the band ‘Page IV’ with vocalist Kevin Mahogany on NPR’s nationally syndicated JazzSet program.
Relocating home to his birthplace of Portland, Oregon in 1994, Pete worked his way to the top of Portland’s music scene. Pete has performed and/or toured with The Harry James Orchestra, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Mitch Woods, Lily Wilde, the Portland Jazz Orchestra, Patrick Lamb, Solomon Douglas, Ellen Whyte, and a small stint in the horn section of southern rock legend Lynyrd Skynyrd. Pete arranged and performed on a recording co-produced by Howard Crosby, the nephew of legendary crooner Bing Crosby. As a leader, his band “Porkpie” hit the national stage, playing jazz and swing festivals in Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and beyond. Pete has also been featured in jazz festivals throughout the region. His CD “Keep Your Hat On” was released internationally on Pony Boy Records. Pete Petersen is a proud endorser of Audix™ Microphones and sound equipment. Pete plays RPC Mouthpieces.