Biography

Born in Baden-Wurttemberg, South Germany, in 1963, Ingolf Burkhardt's first encounter with music was a local brass band where the nine-year old played the bugle. Four years later he discovered a completely new world in his Junior High School Big Band: His music professor taught him how to play the blues. At 16 Ingolf got his first professional gig with a dance band, and subsequently started playing with the popular and award-winning SBF Big Band (Stadt Bad Friedrichshall).

When Ingolf was nominated to play with the official Youth Big Band of his home County Baden-Württemberg (Landesjugend Big Band Baden-Württemberg) under the leadership of the American jazz trombonist and music professor Jiggs Whigham, this resulted in several LP recordings and an extensive tour through Africa. From 1985 to 1989 Ingolf polished his skills at Cologne Music Conservatory with German jazz veteran and trumpet professor Manfred Schoof as well as Jiggs Whigham. During this period Ingolf's professional career took off, playing with the WDR Big Band (West German Radio Big Band), the official Big Band of the EU, Chaka Khan, Peter Herbolzheimer's RC&B and Trio Rio. Furthermore, Ingolf played first trumpet with the musical "Starlight Express" in Bochum, Germany, for two years.

Playing with Bujazzo, the national youth jazz orchestra of West Germany in 1987, Ingolf first met American trumpet legend Bobby Shew. This was not only the beginning of a long friendship but also a successful musical collaboration. It was Shew who encouraged Ingolf to become a trumpet teacher himself, which resulted in a professorship at the Music Conservatory in Hamburg from 2001 to 2008. Since 1990, Ingolf is a regular and indispensable band member of the NDR Big Band (North German Radio). There he had the pleasure of playing with a long list of jazz greats such as Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Lionel Hampton, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jimmy Smith, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Omar Sosa. As one of the leading soloists he is providing musical highlights time and again.

But even beyond that, there is no time for boredom. When he is not touring as a soloist with different (big) bands, he often conducts workshops or group and individual coachings in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, or even Japan.

With his bands "JAZUL" and – even more so – with his "Jazul Duo" he mixes jazz with soul and pop and casually crosses genre boundaries along the way. Their repertoire stretches from Robert Glasper, Giacomo Puccini and John Lennon to groovy original compositions. This is topped off by the soft voice of his congenial duo partner and guitarist Roland Cabezas.

By the way…

Since August 2013, Ingolf is an official Yamaha artist and plays their instruments exclusively – his „IBX" mouthpiece is manufactured specially for him.