Frans Elsen opened his big band's first North Sea Jazz Festival in 1976. Elsen is a gifted pianist. His game has its roots in the bebop tradition. He was one of the first who started to play that way in the Netherlands. His first professional engagement was with Don Byas in 1952. Since shared the pianist the stage with famous jazz musicians such as Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Ben Webster and
… many anderen.Elsen has him also focused over the years on composing, arranging and teaching. Students wrote many textbooks with "play-along CDs.more
