European Jazz Trio: Unique jazz interpretations of classical, jazz pop and folk songs.
The European Jazz Trio crosses the boundaries between jazz, classical, pop and folk music with surprising results. Three CDs have been awarded with the Swing Journal Gold Disc award in Japan. The EJT have recorded several albums and perform regularly around the globe. Their collaboration with the Japanese label M&I dates from the beginning of 2000 and they have since toured South East Asia annually. Their tours have brought them to various famous concert halls including the Sapporo Concert Hall, Suntory Hall and Bunkyo Civic Concert Hall in Tokyo, The Organ Hall in Chisinau in Moldavia, The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Concert Hall in Taipei City in Taiwan, the Seoul Arts Center and the Seoul Lotte Concert Hall. EJT performed at the Tokyo Jazz Festival and the Astana Jazz Festival in Kazachstan in 2023.
Van Roon: "A Specialty of the trio is to try and find some unusual material - unusual in a jazz setting - and to arrange it for the trio. It works both ways: You can take the sound of a jazz trio and give it a fresh voice, a new approach; likewise, you can take the music that everybody knows - pop tunes and classical tunes - and give people a chance to hear them in a different way." The European Jazz Trio pushes the envelope of jazz music by adding to it its own sound and rhythm, a result of the music that has influenced the trio's members.
"We grew up in the seventies and eighties with pop, rock, classical, rap and lots of fusion music. It wasn't only jazz anymore. Being musicians, we try to absorb everything like a sponge and use it somehow. The classical music we perform we really admire, it's very close to us - to our European side."
With every song the trio records the main focus is on the essence and the inner beauty of the composition. "You cannot approach each song in the same way. And it doesn't have so much to do with what we as a trio want to do. It's contained within the song, it's already there. So it's more about what we can leave out, what we don't have to play. This makes each performance unique and special."
On the trio’s first cycle of CD’s featured soloists collaborated with EJT. Charlie Mariano, Art Farmer, Jesse van Ruller and Thijs van Leer added their artistry to catalogue. The European Jazz trio has been recording new albums every year since the release of 'Memories of Liverpool' in 1995. The first recordings have been produced by Japanese jazz producer Makoto Kimata. The albums up till 2016 albums are co-produced by Hiro Yamashita.
Since 2017 the trio produces the albums themselves in cooperation with various producers. The collaboration with the Seoul based highend studio record label Audio Guy has resulted in the release of two albums with European Jazz Trio arrangements of Korean songs in 2018 and 2029.The collaboration with Stomp Music in Seoul has resulted in special albums with live registrations of the animation music of Disney and Ghibli Studios in 2022 as well as a live registration of the orchestrations of the Maple Story Nexon Computer Game in 2024.
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Marc van Roon
Pianist
Marc van Roon (born 1967 in The Hague) is a Dutch jazz pianist. He combines music performance with his work as a creative facilitator for leaders, groups and organizations in sustainable change and learning processes applying the art of improvisation as the main source of inspiration. In this praxis his vision is “to bring the art, heart & vibrancy of living systems back to the centre of good work”.
He has composed songs and orchestra pieces for dance companies and various music ensembles and produced several CDs for other artists and his own ensembles. Van Roon has collaborated with Gregg Osby, Dave Liebman, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Charlie Mariano, Billy Hart, Santi Di Briano, Tony Lakatos, Michael Moore, The Netherlands Dans Theatre and Dutch jazz artists Ernst Reijseger, Tony Overwater, Wim Kegel, Jesse van Ruller, Susanne Abbuehl, Fay Claassen, Eric Vloeimans and Tineke Postma.
Van Roon began classical piano lessons at the age of ten. His interest in jazz and improvisation was sparked at a young age by his father Wouter van Roon, a professional jazz pianist. He studied music privately until the age of sixteen when he enrolled in the music program at the Royal Music Conservatory in The Hague. He studied with pianists Frans Elsen, Rob van Kreeveld, Geoffrey Douglas Madge and Lanny Kho. He graduated in 1991 and left for a post conservatorial study to New York City. There he studied with jazz pianists Barry Harris and Richie Beirach. He returned to the Netherlands in 1993 started his own trio and continued to collaborate with other musicians. At the same time he co-founded the creative artistic consultancy group Art in Rhythm. Thereafter he started to give lecture based learning experiences for audiences around the world. Van Roon has recorded many CDs as a leader for the record label Apple on the Moon. His work includes solo albums, collaborative work with other musicians and work with orchestras such as Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra's offshoot 'Ebony Band'. As a composer, Van Roon has written original material for choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa ballets 'Before After' and 'Symbiosis'. Since 2007 Van Roon is a member of the Tineke Postma Quartet and the Michael Moore Quintet.
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Frans van der Hoeven
Bassist
Frans van der Hoeven is a Dutch Bassplayer, Composer, Arranger, Solo performer, Teacher, and Multi Instrumentalist. He performs with musicians such as Jesse van Ruller Trio, Eef Albers Trio, Fay Claasen Band, Red Yellow & Blue and the Jeroen van Vliet trio In the past he has collaborated with: Clark Terry, Woody Shaw, Barney Wilen, Jack deJohnette, Eivind Aarset, Harry Sweets Edison, Art Farmer, Ronnie Cuber, Tom Harrel, Lee Konitz, Dee Dee Bridgewater,Toots Thielemans, Kurt Rosenwinkel and many more. he has recorded with: The Toon Roos Quartet, Rob Madna,Jesse van Ruller,Han Bennink, Diederik Wissels/David Linx, Art Farmer, Charlie Mariano, Fairouz, Lew Tabackin, the Dutch Jazz Orchestra and others.
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Roy Dackus
Drummer
Roy Dackus (‘64) Roy Dackus started to play drums at a young age following his father who was a professional drummer. In 1987 he graduated cum laude from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. During the years he has performed and recorded with different artists including Toots Thielemans, Randy Brecker, Richard Galliano, Dutch rock band Focus, Jan Akkerman. He played in orchestras as The Metropole Orchestra directed by Vince Mendoza, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and Hessischer Rundfunk bigband.
Roy has been a member of the European Jazz Trio) since 1988. With EJT he collaborated with Art Farmer, Charlie Mariano, Jesse van Ruller and Thijs van Leer.