When Martin Fleischer arrived in Beijing to work as a consular officer at the German Embassy in May 1987, he did not have anticipate the impact he would make on the capital's jazz scene.

As his luggage, Fleischer, then 32, brought his double bass and two copies of his jazz fake book in the hope of finding other musicians.

"My expectation was I could find a band I could join, but I didn't expect it to be so hard," he recalled. "Genuinely speaking, double bassists are pretty rare, so when I came here I told everyone I knew - and didn't - that I played jazz."

The difficulty at that time was not the lack of a jazz scene, but the absence of a music scene at all.

"There were no clubs, no jazz bands, with the exception of visiting Filipino bands at hotels. There was not even a pub. There were no meeting points for foreigners and Chinese, and there were very few jazz musicians."

Fleischer's solution was to offer a workshop and make friends with the very few rock musicians in China at that time, notably Cui Jian, who before becoming famous as a rock 'n' roll guitarist played trumpet for the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra. Liu Yuan, Cui's friend and saxophonist in his band, became a friend of Fleischer's as well.

"He was the only jazz musician at that time who deserved the name," he recalled. "Very dedicated and industrious."

"I posted handwritten notices, in English, in various places such as supermarkets and said I was looking for musicians who had an interest in jazz music, if they wanted to play," he explained.

After receiving a few responses from both foreigners and Chinese musicians, a group began practicing in Fleischer's one-bedroom apartment in autumn 1987 and the Joint Venture Jazz Band was formed.

The band featured Fleischer on double bass, Liu on saxophone, Zhuang Biao on piano, Liu Xiaosong on drums, and another German, Barbara Hudek, on flute.

But once assembled, despite the economic reforms and opening up China was experiencing at that time, the greatest challenge for the Chinese musicians turned out to be simply acquiring instruments.

According to Fleischer, Zhuang managed to obtain a keyboard because he was the son of the renowned classical pianist Ba Huijiao. His mother's status permitted her a government voucher for a new piano every five years. One of those vouchers meant Zhuang got a keyboard to play in the band.

"We did a few concerts and private ventures," Fleischer said.

"We played in a semi-public party in a restaurant, but it was closed by the authorities the next day because the concert was held without a license."

The Joint Venture Jazz Band disbanded after only a few months, but in spring 1988, Fleischer and others founded a new jazz band, The Swinging Mandarins.

Drummer Liu and Fleischer we joined by Liang Heping on piano; a young American businessman, Paul Shupack, on guitar; a Swedish-Korean banker, Frederich Cho, and American Jonathan Zax, both playing saxophone.

"That band was a great success not because it was so good, but because there was no competitor," Fleischer admitted. "Except for Cui Jian's band, which would sometimes perform under the name Ado and would play jazz, too, sometimes. But we were all still friends."

The Swinging Mandarins began to play regularly at Maxim's, a French restaurant and cocktail lounge in the Chongwenmen Hotel. Beijing's first joint-venture restaurant, Maxim's opened in 1983.

"Mind you, we had a split currency at that time, so Madame Song started to offer jazz nights in the restaurant's bar and also engaged us for special events, such as when they had foreign delegations coming," he said.

"It wasn't too much of a meeting place because most of the prices were prohibitive for Chinese. The audience was mainly many foreigners and wealthy Chinese."

Later, the Swinging Mandarins moved to the main lobby of the Jianguo Hotel, which allowed more friends with less money to come and listen, and a broader audience was reached. The Swinging Mandarins existed for a year and a half.

"So the band disbanded with the exception of one little concert when I visited in early 1990. I had Cui Jian as a guest musician playing the trumpet," he said.

The paths of the various members of Fleischer's bands began to diverge. He is still in touch with Liu Xiaosong, who is a sought-after studio and concert drummer, mainly in pop music, and they are close friends.

After convincing his girlfriend, Jasmine, whom he met in Beijing and later married, to come with him to Germany for her studies, the two embarked together on various postings around the world: Bonn, Germany; Abuja, Nigeria, Brussels, Berlin, and New York City, until they returned to Beijing in spring 2006 with their two sons.

"I'd been away 17 years and my old friends the musicians welcomed me as if I'd been away for a year," he said.

Since his return to Beijing, the 54 year-old has not created a new jazz band, but on most Friday and Saturday nights can be found among the avid jazz fans puffing away on a pipe and supporting his friends onstage at CD Jazz and East Shore Jazz Cafes.

"I go to them regularly and am greeted with great respect and am invited onstage, and that's a good feeling," he marveled, "to come back."