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Jim Hartog

Moving to New York immediately after graduation, Jim Hartog became a free- lance musician, performing with such artists as Jaki Byard, the Mingus Big Band, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, the Kool Jazz World Music Concert (with Karl Berger, Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, et. al.), Mickey Roker, Teddy Bärlocher, Joe Bushkin and Tito Puente. He also recorded with Carmen Lundy, Tom Varner, Keshavan Maslak, Bobby Watson, Craig Bailey, the East Down Septet, Bob Belden, and others, and toured with the New York Composers Orchestra, the FraFra Big Band, Domagoj Ralašić and Joel Forrester.

Still, Jim Hartog is perhaps best known for his work with the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, which he co-founded with Ed Jackson in 1982. Along with Bobby Watson and Rich Rothenberg (later Willie Williams) this ensemble went on to record over seven records and make innumerable radio and television appearances throughout Europe, the United States, in Istanbul, Puerto Rico and Canada.

Jim Hartog was born on March 10, 1950 in San Mateo, California. As a first generation American, he grew up in an environment where Dutch was spoken by his parents, various relatives in the area, as well as many family friends and contacts. Nevertheless, both Jim and his older brother Dirk spoke English exclusively at home, and were sufficiently imbued with U.S. 'values' to learn to pledge allegiance to the flag, to follow all elections EXACTLY as if they were the World Series, to cherish movies, Rocky and Bullwinkle, almost any kind of pie, Willie Mays, and American literature. Simply put, Jim Hartog was a typical Baby Boomer. After surviving six years at Menlo School, he finally managed to escape to the remotest place he could find in the Continental U.S.--Iowa, eventually graduating from Grinnell College in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in history. He returned briefly to Berkeley, California where he began his study of saxophone in earnest. In 1974, Jim Hartog moved to the Boston area, where he studied at Berklee College and ultimately received his Bachelor's in Afro- American Music from New England Conservatory, graduating with honors in 1980. During this time, he spent several years doing radio work as a news writer and reporter, and as a jazz d.j. In 2001, Jim Hartog left New York and moved with his family to the Netherlands, where he continued his career as performer and educator. After a previous stint teaching at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam in the early 1990's, he now concentrates on giving private lessons and ensemble coaching.

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Saxophone, baritone

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