Lang Lang
New Cool Collective
Let's make a swinging and wanton start with the New Cool Collective, under guidance of saxophone player Benjamin Herman (in this clip mainly tormenting the guiro). From the nineties on this Amsterdam based band brings back jazz to where it once started in the early twentieth century: the clubs and dance halls. New Cool Collective is also a stepping stone for talented jazz musicians like guitarist Anton Goudsmit, while Herman became a figurehead of Dutch contemporary jazz.
La Plus Belle Africaine
Fra Fra Big Band
Already before the Second World War, black people who come to the Netherlands from the (former) Dutch colony Surinam, leave a mark on Dutch jazz. Like the legendary saxophone player Lodewijk Parisius alias Kid Dynamite (1911-1963) who mixes swing with Surinamese rhythms. Fra Fra Sound and their extensive line-up Fra Fra Big Band are founded in 1980 by Surinamese musicians and bring kaseko, winti and other Caribbean styles to modern jazz.
Thou Swell
Rita Reys & Pim Jacobs Trio
Pim Jacobs (1934-1996) is not only a gifted Dutch piano player, but also an ambassador for international jazz music in his television shows during the sixties and seventies. In 1960 he weds Holland's most famous jazz singer Rita Reys (1924-2013). A marriage made in jazz heaven, sealed with their successful performances and albums together.
No Hard Shoulder
Jasper van 't Hof 1/4tet
For long keyboard player Jasper van 't Hof is more famous in Germany and France than in his own country. He is a key figure in the European jazz rock scene of the seventies and plays with Charlie Mariano, Archie Shepp, Jan Akkerman and many more. He never quits playing, while moving more towards post-bop. In 2018 his great track record is finally recognized with the allotment of the Boy Edgar Award, Holland's greatest jazz prize.
Improvisation
Misha Mengelberg Quartet
One of the first achievements of musical partners for life pianist Misha Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink is a tour with Eric Dolphy, immortalized on the live-album Last Date. From there they continue to shake up the European jazz scene. At first with an original and free view on bop with the Misha Mengelberg Quartet - featuring the wonderful but traditional bop-saxophonist Piet Noordijk - and then moving on to free jazz, avant-garde and musical Fluxus art with the Instant Composers Pool. With the death of Mengelberg in 2017 the music world loses one of its most original and free-spirited talents.
Maceo
Eric Vloeimans' Gatecrash
Trumpet player Eric Vloeimans comes to the conservatory of Rotterdam to study classical music. But soon he moves to the jazz department, after which he continues his studies in New York with Donald Byrd. During his fruitful career Vloeimans feels at home in jazz, as well as classical and world music and the many crossovers between these genres. Gatecrash is his electric jazz band with which he returns regularly and successfully.
Palace
Ben van Gelder, Reinier Baas, Metropole Orkest
The world is not that big for young musicians like guitarist Reinier Baas and saxophonist Ben van Gelder. As band leaders, composers and instrumentalists they work just as easily in New York as Utrecht or Berlin. They called the album that they made together Smash Hits (2018). Not that it contains hit singles, but a lot of inspired playing, modern creative compositions from both and the necessary musical rowdiness for jazz band and full orchestra.
Avalon
Yuri Honing, Wolfert Brederode
Internationally saxophonist Yuri Honing is one of the most famous Dutch jazz musicians. He likes to present himself as a performer and artist who talks easily about his work and knows how to link fascinating themes such as poetry, art and cultural history to his music in an accessible way. This already earned him the Edison Jazz Award for his album Goldbrun (2018). The moody chamber jazz of the album Avalon Songs (2020) that Honing recorded with pianist Wolfert Brederode, is based on the Celtic myths of the island Avalon.
Delight
Kika Sprangers
Saxophonist and composer Kika Sprangers is part of the current uprising of young female jazz musicians in the Netherlands. Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad named her in 2019 among the 101 new talents with a bright future ahead. A promise that she already started fulfilling with Human Traits (2019), her ambitious debut-album on which each song is a musical portrait of an actual person.
When You're Smiling
Kim Hoorweg
We end this playlist with a breezy standard by the young and seductive jazz singer Kim Hoorweg. Already in her early teens this Rotterdam based daughter of jazz musician Erwin Hoorweg gained a love for jazz singers like Peggy Lee and Julie London. At the tender age of 13 she debuted with Kim Is Back (2009), an album full of Gershwin-compositions that paved the way for a fruitful career ahead.