Niklas Winter started his studies at the Turku Conservatory in the mid 1980s and later studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1991–1995. His early influences have been John Scofield and Pat Metheny. Later influences have mostly included horn players and pianists: Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane and Kenny Wheeler, just to name a few.

Winter started his professional career with the Danish-Finnish Scandinavian Jazz Quartet in 1992. His main interest has always been writing and performing original music. His bands, as a leader, have been the Finnish-Danish-Swedish Winter’s Jazz Workshop and the Finnish-Swedish Niklas Winter Quartet. Since 2004 Winter has also led his Finnish-Japanese quartets and quintets, and his latest album ’Beautopia’ was released in Japan by the Japanese King Records in 2007 and in Europe in 2008.

During the years Winter has performed with artists such as Kenny Wheeler, Cameron Brown, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jukkis Uotila, Lars Jansson, Ted Curson and Karl-Martin Almqvist. Winter has performed on most Finnish jazz festivals and many international festivals as well. Winter has received several awards for his musicianship.

Besides the new Manuel Dunkel & Niklas Winter Quartet, Winter's exciting new projects include the guitar duo with Finnish guitarist Teemu Viinikainen. Winter is recording new CDs during the year 2010. There will be a duo CD with Teemu Viinikainen and also a new record with his Finnish-Japanese Quintet. These two records are to be released in late 2010 or early 2011.

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Teemu Viinikainen has performed together with saxophonists Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman, trumpeters Randy Brecker and Tim Hagans, conductor Vince Mendoza and fellow guitarist Wayne Krantz. He collaborates frequently with local bandleaders like saxophonists Jukka Perko and Eero Koivistoinen and drummer/pianist Jukkis Uotila. He’s also the co-leader of the organ trio The Bronson. Trio's other members are Mikko Helevä and Teppo Mäkynen.

Viinikainen's discography includes such recent Finnish jazz landmarks as the award winning "Kaira" by drummer André Sumelius' band Lift (2002), the critically lauded "New Moods – New Sounds" by saxophonist Antti Sarpila and vibraphone player Severi Pyysalo (2001), and poetic trio albums "Kuunnelmia" (2004) and "Maan korvessa" (2008) executed with vibraphonist Severi Pyysalo and saxophonist Jukka Perko.

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Daniel Marques is a professional Brazilian guitar player. He has graduated on guitar at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His music consists of modern variations of traditional rhythms such as samba, bossa nova, choro and maracatu.

Marques released his first solo album "Carnaval de Perneta" in the summer of 2009. The album got excellent reviews from prestigious Brazilian musicians such as Guinga and Egberto Gismonti. Marques toured in Europe in 2009 and gave concerts in Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania and Serbia. In 2008 and 2009 he was invited to perform at the birthday event of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

Marques has also been engaged in Brazilian instrumental music workshops at universities and music schools in Latin America and Europe.

Markus Jaatinen was born in Finland 1977. He studied in Pop & Jazz Conservatory and Polythecnics of Pop&Jazz music in Helsinki during years 1999 and 2006. Besides that, Markus has studied percussion instruments with Thomas Jimeno, Sergio Krakowski, Ramiro Musotto, Amdito Valdes, Marcos Suzano and many others. Endless numbers and possibilities of percussion instruments attracted Markus to travel several times in Brazil. Getting influences from samba schools and streets of Rio de Janeiro. In Finland Markus is playing as a freelance musician and with many bands involved with Brazilian and Cuban music performing allover Europe, brazil and USA. Caipirinha, Septeto Son, Grupo Legal and Soultwisters just to name few. Besides performing Markus has given percussion workshops an private lessons in music schools in Finland.

Daniel Marques, guitar
Markus Jaatinen, percussion

Steinar Aadnekvam is one of the most active and most talked about young and upcoming guitarists on Scandinavian Jazz scene. Aadnekvam was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1984. After finishing his Conservatory studies in Stockholm in 2005 he has toured in countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and Spain. His travels in Brazil and India have influenced his playing style and musicianship significantly. The first album from this outstanding quartet will be released in 2010.

Steinar Aadnekvam, guitar
Jonatan Guzman, piano
Petter Eldh, bass
Anders Olsson, drums

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