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Jazz, from New Orleans to Swing, presented in an entirely original form by the leading classic jazzgroup in Germany. Now with an international line-up with musicians from the USA and Great Britain.

Founded in 1953 and active ever since, the BARRELHOUSE JAZZBAND has gained national and international renown and ranks among the top groups of the European scene. The band has toured more than 50 countries on 4 continents, appeared at all major jazz festivals in Europe, e.g. The Hague, Breda, Nice, Paris, San Sebastian, Ascona, Zurich, Lucerne, Warsaw, Cork, Birmingham, Oslo, Berlin, and New Orleans, where in 1968 the Barrelhouse Jazzband received, as one of the first bands from Europe, the honorary citizenship in recognition of its merits.

The band has recorded some 20 Barrelhouse Albums as well as numerous compilation records together with other bands, and won - beside other awards - the "German Phono Academy Award" for the best Traditional Jazz Record published in Germany in 1977. (Quotation: "Highly intelligent old jazz, full of vitality, enlightened music, always with that beautiful 'black' feeling").

Eubie Blake, the famous Ragtime-pianist and composer, heard the band in 1978 and commented: "Everything that I write I mean from the bottom of my heart: This is one of the best for a small orchestra that I have ever heard. And I am hearing bands since 1902!" The Barrelhouse Jazzband has featured dozens of leading jazz stars throughout the decades, including Albert Nicholas, Sam Wooding, Mezz Mezzrow, Jimmy Hamilton, Jay McShann, Sammy Price, Carrie Smith, Harry Edison, Joe Newman, Arnette Cobb, Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Clark Terry, Jimmy Witherspoon, Art Hodes and many others.

The BARRELHOUSE JAZZBAND presents a special blend of elements from all phases of traditional jazz, with predominant accents from the early big band style of the Twenties, the small band style around 1930 and the New Orleans Renaissance. All numbers are played in new original arrangements with drive and feeling. 

Special concert programs featured by the Barrelhouse Jazzband: Jelly Roll Morton's Music - The New Orleans Renaissance - Blues into Jazz - The Anatomy of Hot Jazz: The Music, its Elements and Structure - History of Jazz: The First 50 years - A Tribute to Duke Ellington, and with ROD MASON (tp and voc) as special guest: "The Music of Louis Armstrong".