With Louis Armstrong and Muggsy Spanier, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s. His turns on "Singin' the Blues" and "I'm Coming, Virginia" (both 1927), in particular, demonstrated an unusual purity of tone and a gift for improvisation. With these two recordings, especially, he helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at what, in the 1950s, would become cool jazz. "In a Mist" (1927), one of a handful of his piano compositions and one of only two he recorded, mixed classical (Impressionist) influences with jazz syncopation.

A native of Davenport, Iowa, Beiderbecke taught himself to play cornet largely by ear, leading him to adopt a non-standard fingering some critics have connected to his original sound. He first recorded with Midwestern jazz ensembles, The Wolverines and The Bucktown Five[1][2] in 1924, after which he played briefly for the Detroit-based Jean Goldkette Orchestra before joining Frankie "Tram" Trumbauer for an extended gig at the Arcadia Ballroom in St. Louis. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer joined Goldkette in 1926. The band toured widely and famously played a set opposite Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in October 1926. He made his greatest recordings in 1927 (see above). In 1928, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the country: the New-York-based Paul WhitemanOrchestra.

Beiderbecke's most influential recordings date from his time with Goldkette and Whiteman, although they were generally recorded under his own name or Trumbauer's. The Whiteman period also marked a precipitous decline in Beiderbecke's health, brought on by the demand of the bandleader's relentless touring and recording schedule in combination with Beiderbecke's persistent alcoholism. A few stints in rehabilitation centers, as well as the support of Whiteman and the Beiderbecke family in Davenport, did not check Beiderbecke's decline in health. He left the Whiteman band in 1930 and the following summer died in his Queens apartment at the age of 28.[3]

Free from any museum nostalgia, the four musicians take their inspiration from the gigantic treasury of swinging jazz, from Bix to Bop, from Getz to Gershwin, while constantly searching for the hidden, the unexpected, the exquisite. The Great American Song book and the immeasurable recordings of great Jazz pioneers form the humus for the creativity of the combo, with astonishing arrangements, virtuoso solos and expressive compositions of their own.

Two horns, drums and piano. This unique, compact formation permits the greatest in harmony and flexibility and allows freedom for an agile, exact ensemble. The group thrives on a mixture of clever arrangements and interaction of improvised dialogue, performing for, and with one another.

The contemporary interpretation of an enormously varied repertoire and not last the humorous moderation and spontaneous stage presence, has helped gain ECHOES OF SWING great popularity and made the ensemble a much renowned and celebrated attraction on the international jazz scene.

Sixteen years of touring have led the ECHOES all across Europe and the USA, to Japan, New Zealand and even the Fiji Islands. The exceedingly diverse musical development of the band is in the meantime impressively documented on five CDs. The last ECHOES OF SWING album ‘Message from Mars’ received the ‘Prix de l’Académie du Jazz’ in Paris, and in Germany was awarded the ‘German Record Critics' Award’.
In 2013 ECHOES OF SWING signed a contract with 'ACT Music & Vision'. The eagerly anticipated album is now due for release.

Many people who have never heard the name of Mulo Francel will nonetheless be aware of his playing, because the saxophonist is one of the founder members of Germany's most successful world music group Quadro Nuevo, which has been in existence since 1996. For Francel, this band provides the ideal means to channel any need he might have for travel, and also to give musical expression to his innate curiosity about other cultures. Quadro Nuevo brings him into contact with musicians, myths and melodies from all over the world, and these encounters happen “in the spirit of jazz”: freely, spontaneously and non- judgementally. That said, Francel’s musical roots are unquestionably in jazz. His legacy from a father who died too soon was a collection of jazz records, which became the door to a new world for the young Mulo. At the age of 16, he saved up his own money and bought a saxophone. His studies in Linz, Munich and New York prepared him for the wider world. Alongside his allegiance to Quadro Nuevo, he has always stayed true to jazz, from his early soul band Mind Games, through the trio Die Abenteurer (the adventurers), to a jazz quartet, with whom he recorded the album “Escape” five years ago. Most recently he has been part of Echoes of Swing, with Pete York, Shannon Barnett and Henning Gailing, who made a “Tribute to Bix Beiderbecke” in the “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” series, which was issued as a double CD on the ACT label.

“Mocca Swing” marks a return to that abiding first love

– of jazz. And yet his debut album in his own name on ACT is much more than that. “It has been such a luxury. A wonderful escapade, I've been able to go the whole way.” says Francel. What has emerged is a double album which is a substantial piece of work. The first of the two CDs presents “Mulo Francel & Friends”, i.e. his new quartet. As in Quadro Nuevo, the combination of musicians with such different stylistic origins produces kaleidoscopic variety – and excitement. Francel himself sets the tone with his melodic playing, staying close to mainstream jazz, (on two tracks he plays the C-Melody saxophone, widely used in early jazz), but he also gives his excellent accompanists full rein: Baku-born pianist David Gazarov, who possesses an extraordinary technique – at the intersection of classical music and jazz – and who is a also walking encyclopedia of all jazz styles; bassist Sven Faller, known for his work with Le Bang Bang and Trio Elf – he studied in New York, and broadened out his horizons by playing on the scene there; and percussionist Robert Kainar, a pivotal figure on the Austrian jazz scene.

In addition to three compositions by Francel himself,

his colleagues were also able to contribute: Faller’s “ Pixinguinha” pays homage to Brazilian music, and Gazarov’s adaptation of Chopins Etude Op. 10, No. 6 appears as “Retrospective Of A Broken Man”.

On the second CD, they are joined by the Munich Radio Orchestra and companions from various points in Francel’s musical life. “Our point of departure is the pieces I have felt closest to in recent years. The idea was to use all of the possibilities offered by a large ensemble to cast new light on them,” Francel explains. His colleagues from Quadro Nuevo, Andreas Hinterseher on bandoneon und accordion, Chris Gall at the piano, Evelyn Huber on harp, and D.D. Lowka on bass join him on three tracks. Compositions from the repertoire they have shared together, such as “Taquito Militar” – a tango which Francel discovered on a journey to Buenos Aires, and adapted – are transformed from chamber music into something orchestral and hymnic, but also jazzy. The same happens to “Flying Carpet”, the title track of a Quadro Nuevo album, which oscillates between western and eastern influences. This track grew out of the work – and a journey together to Egypt – which Francel and Quadro Nuevo did with the band Cairo Steps. Here percussionist Max Klaas from Cairo Steps ensures that the rhythms are authntic. Erroll Garner's “Misty”, which is one of Francel's favourite jazz standards, gains extravagant new colours through adding the Spanish guitar sounds of his good friends Jan Pascal and Alexander Kilian who form the flamenco duo Café del Mundo. And finally Francel takes compositions by friends such as the guitarist Paulo Morello (“Robert’s Waltz”) and the flautist Philipp Sterzer (“Die Abenteurer”/ the adventurers), and also uses experienced arrangers such as the New York-based latin specialist Daniel Freiberg, the young innovative big band writer Leonhard Kuhn from Munich, and the Dutch early jazz specialist Menno Daams.

Shannon Barnett is a versatile Australian trombonist, vocalist and composer, and graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. In 2007, she was named Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards. Barnett has become an important contributor to the Australian music scene, performing in ensembles including Vada, The Bamboos, The Vampires, and as a guest with the Andrea Keller Quartet, on the 2004 ABC Jazz release Angels and Rascals. Barnett has also appeared with the Australian Art Orchestra, Barney McAll's Mother of Dreams and Secrets feat. Kurt Rosenwinkel, Charlie Haden, Flap! and the Paul Grabowsky Sextet, and from 2009-2010, she worked as a multi-instrumentalist and composer with the contemporary circus group Circus Oz. In 2010, Barnett released her debut album as a leader, entitled 'Country', on the Which Way Music label. The recording also features Christopher Hale (acoustic bass guitar), Nashua Lee (electric guitar) and Ben Hendry (drums), and was nominated for Best Jazz Album in the 2010 AIR Awards and Best Jazz Recording in the 2011 ABC Limelight Awards. After attending Dave Douglas' ‘Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music’ in Banff, Canada in 2010, Barnett was inspired to relocate to New York City, where she completed a Master of Music degree. There she performed with the likes of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Pedro Giraudo, Cyrille Aimée, Cecile McLorin Salvant, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York and was a regular member of the Birdland Big Band. In early 2014, she moved to Cologne, Germany, to take up a position with the WDR Big Band.