Bio
Which swing clarinettist brought the sound of Sydney Bechet to tribesmen in the jungles of Laos, sword-bearing Tibetans at 4000m above sea level, Syrian kids in refugee camps in Lebanon, Finnish conscripts in the Arctic Circle and skaters in Siberia at -18 Celsius where at the end of the show he found he had a 10 cm icicle on the end of this clarinet! It is of course… Jimbino Vegan.
As well as performing at swing and jazz festivals across Europe and the world (Cork Jazz festival, Harrang, Tension Festival Berlin, Boquete Jazz festival in Panama and swing dance festivals in Beijing, Kiev and Adelaide to name a few), Jimbino delights in bringing live swing and jazz to people all over that have never heard anything like it. His unsuspecting audiences are delighted by his spectacular dance routines at shows where he fuses lindyhop with his passion for breakdance and gymnastics.
Jimbino’s energetic clarinet was the first live swing music to inspire band leaders such as Laurent Humeux (The Jungle) and Bots Leonard (Old Fish Jazz Band) to become professional musicians and over the years bands he helped establish have been instrumental in kicking off young swing scenes where-ever he has settled: The Haferflocken Swingers in Berlin, Too Dumb to Die in the Baltic States, Smoking Time Jazz Club and Cyclown Circus across Europe.
He sings jazz numbers in several languages (Finnish, Polish, Estonian, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Thai, Japanese) and also enjoys translating these songs into English to help spread an interest and appreciation of diversity in the vast jazz tree. Along with many swing recordings, Jimbino Vegan has produced 3 CD’s of original music with a heavy swing influence. His most recent CD: “D.A.N.C.E”, recorded with his band The Jazz Cannibals, is available on Bandcamp .
“Jimmy”, as he is known by his bandmates, and his passion for swing started at age 14 when he stumbled into Jitterbugs Club in London and struck a deal with the organisers so that he could come and learn to dance for free if he brought a paying friend and helped with stacking the chairs at the end. Since then he has set up the Bristol University Swing Dance Society, founded the Haferflocken Swingers in 2002 (perhaps the first young swing band of musicians in Berlin since the 50s) and travelled all around Europe and Asia playing music with the Cyclown Circus (Where he performed alongside the likes of: Mechiah Lake, Bots Leonard, Shaye Cohen, Laurence Humeaux, Johney Joyce and Erika Lewis. In 2011 he moved to New Orleans where he played clarinet in the Smoking Time Jazz Club, The Black Resonators and The Bad Penny Pleasuremakers as well as depping on clarinet in Tuba Skinny and several other local swing bands. While living in NO he opened Jimbino Vegan’s Café, a music venue where visiting bands could perform. Returning to Europe in 2015 he formed his own band The Jazz Cannibals who play his jazz inspired original songs and classic swing music.
Jimbino is passionate about teaching and sharing his skills. His most recent project: Wash Your Hands Band is a community orchestra that was started to raise local moral through street concerts during quarantine. He managed to bring together local musicians and the band (orchestra) now consists of around 20 instrumentalists and singers from 22 years old to 82 years old of all abilities. They continue to play and have recorded a CD and raised over 1300 for a local youth charity. He also gives occasional classes in “Eccentric Dance” which is a little-known form of swing dance that rarely practiced these days.
In his projects Jimbino has found that performing music, dance and making art are very powerful platforms to promote social justice, helping people connect with each other, feel supported and inspiring people to let go of their fears and worries and discover how fun, full of excitement, happy, beautiful, magic and wondrous life can be! He hopes to continue spreading his original music, teaching and performing with great musicians to inspire the next generation of swing musicians.