Joel Beaver grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he began playing guitar at the age of 12. For years he played fingerstyle blues & ragtime as well as flatpickin' bluegrass but after a few lessons with Paul Mehling of The Hot Club of S.F. he became obsessed with learning the swinging, melodic and virtuosic guitar stylings of the legendary Django Reinhardt. In 1997, Joel moved to New York City and shortly thereafter began studying with guitar master Stephane Wrembel who had recently moved to the U.S from France. He was soon drafted to assist in rhythm guitar duties as a member of Stephane's Hot Club of New York, playing bars, restaurants & cafes all over NYC as well as festivals around the country and overseas before forming his own band, LES Hot Club.
Carolin Pook is a gifted violinist from Germany who studied jazz and classical music as well as music composition. She studied gypsy jazz with violinist Zipflo Reinhardt and as a teenager, often jammed with the gypsies who settled near the border between Germany and France. She is a master improviser in the art of gypsy swing. She plays some pretty mean drums too!
Glenn Tosto is at the forefront of the Gypsy Jazz revival, playing rhythm guitar for two top Gypsy Swing bands in New York City. In addition to playing with LES Hot Club, he performs regularly with Gypsy Jazz Caravan, sharing the stage with some of New York’s finest musicians, including guests: Dan Levinson- clarinet; Zach Brock- violin; Vinny Raniolo- guitar, and many others. Recently Glenn has been involved in a recording project with New Orleans Jazz drummer, Ronnie Magri as well as a solo project that he is producing in his home studio in the East Village. Glenn has an MBA from Dowling College and has been studying guitar with virtuoso Frank Vignola since 2002 and just finished a lesson book and DVD with Frank, which is to be released by Truefire.com in 2011. He wrote his first Gypsy Jazz song, entitled “For Tina”, which can be heard on Gypsy Jazz Caravan’s 2008 CD release Sinister Amusement. He continues to write songs in the Gypsy Swing genre and is committed to keeping this style of music alive.
Terence Murren is a string bassist, electric bassist and guitarist. He studied classical string bass and composition with Sue Powell and Annea Lockwood at Vassar College. A jazz musician at heart he has studied bass with Tim Ferguson, Steve Neil and Drew Gress; as well as doing course work with Mike Richmond at NYU's Graduate program in Jazz Performance. Along with his own Indie band, Relations, Murren performs with and produces the alt country group the Doc Marshalls. Additionally, he has performed with Matt Bauder, Lawrence Clark, Tomas Fujiwara, Steve Blanco, Billy Bang, Tom Abbs, Daniel Carter, Butch Morris, Assif Tsahar and the Schul band among many others. Mr. Murren works as a Teaching artist for the 92nd St Y and Creative Music Programs.
Terence, Joel, Carolin & Glenn