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Jorrit Dijkstra

The music of saxophonist and composer Jorrit Dijkstra draws from the jazz tradition in spirit and sound, but has crossed stylistic and cultural borders in order to express a strong, evolving personal vision. He spent his formative years in Amsterdam’s vibrant improvisation community, playing jazz, free improvisation, contemporary opera, and African, Celtic and Balkan music. Since moving to the United States in 2002, Dijkstra has deepened his affinity with the experimental forces of American music, while staying in touch with his Dutch musical roots.

Dijkstra’s current projects include his Flatlands Collective, with leading Chicago improvisers, and an electro-acoustic duo with New York drummer/composer John Hollenbeck. In his solo saxophone project, he incorporates an array of electronic effect devices to process his saxophone improvisations live on stage. Dijkstra’s use of analog electronics - including the Lyricon, a vintage electronic wind instrument from the seventies - extends his already flexible saxophone style into an idiosyncratic mix of cool jazz, free improvisation, and electronic minimalism.

Dijkstra has released eight of his own CDs and has performed at North Sea Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Rome’s Festival Controindicazioni, New York City’s Tonic, the Chicago Cultural Center, ICA Boston, BIMhuis Amsterdam, and Stadtgarten Cologne. His work has won him a Fulbright grant, a prestigious Podium Prize for jazz musicians in the Netherlands, and composition commissions for ensembles and theatre companies around the world. Jorrit Dijkstra studied improvisation and composition with Misha Mengelberg, Steve Coleman, Steve Lacy and Lee Hyla, and he has taught at the Conservatory in Arnhem, New England Conservatory, and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Awards

Podium Prize 1995 (Dutch Jazz Foundation award for new talent) Fulbright Grant 1998


Tags

72
Album Review

Benoît Delbecq - Jorrit Dijkstra - John Hollenbeck: Linger

Read "Linger" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Thes New England-based record label, Driff Records, was established in 2012 by Jorrit Dijkstra (reeds, electronics) and Pandelis Karayorgis (piano) with the intentions of creating “transatlantic improvised music." Dijkstra and drummer, composer John Hollenbeck have enjoyed a productive working relationship since the 1990s, and invited forward-thinking French pianist Benoît Delbecq into this beguiling and uncanny improvisational trio setting for Linger. It definitely goes against the grain, even by free jazz nomenclatures. But the intermixing of acoustic and electronics yield some ...

1
Album Review

Bathysphere: Bathysphere

Read "Bathysphere" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il sassofonista olandese Jorrit Dijkstra e il pianista greco Pandelis Karayorgis vivono negli Stati Uniti da vari anni (il primo dal 2002, il secondo dal 1985). Entrambi sono docenti al New England Conservatory di Boston, sono compositori interessati alla libera improvvisazione e all'elettronica e collaborano nel quartetto Matchbox e nel più noto The Whammies, un ensemble con Jeb Bishop e Han Bennink, che ha dedicato tre album alla musica di Steve Lacy. Nella primavera del 2015 hanno coinvolto ...

Multiple Reviews

La generosità di Jorrit Dijkstra

Read "La generosità di Jorrit Dijkstra" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Cinquantenne sassofonista di Eindhoven, anima (fra le altre) di The Whammies, gruppo dedito alla rilettura del songbook di Steve Lacy, Jorrit Dijkstra sforna album con una certa generosità tramite la sua etichetta discografica Driff Records, evitando accuratamente i colpi a salve. Jorrit Dijkstra, Pandelis Karayorgis, Nate McBride, Curt Newton Matchbox Driff Records (2015) Valutazione: * * * ½ Il primo dei due CD di cui ci occupiamo oggi, inciso ad ...

10
Album Review

Bathysphere: Bathysphere

Read "Bathysphere" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Driff Records labelmates, pianist Pandelis Karayorgis and reedman Jorrit Dijkstra assembled this impressive lineup with the intentions of keeping the “individual musicians in mind." The group moniker relates to a deep-sea submersible apparatus that draws a parallel to the ensemble's deep dive musical exploits. The band imparts a translucent region of sound via asymmetrical elements of modern mainstream and avant-garde framed expressionism. One of the reoccurring highlights pertain to the artists' inner-workings and mechanics in concert with ballsy horns charts; ...

1
Album Review

Jorrit Dijkstra: Music for Reeds and Electronics - Oakland

Read "Music for Reeds and Electronics - Oakland" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Il sassofonista e compositore olandese Jorrit Dijkstra, classe 1966, da anni negli States e allievo di Steve Lacy, Misha Mengelberg e Bob Brookmeyer, presenta in questo lavoro una serie di composizioni per quintetto di sole ance, nelle quali però sperimenta anche l'uso dell'elettronica. Al suo fianco troviamo musicisti importanti, tra i quali spicca--specie per il tipo di formazione--Jon Raskin, storico membro del Rova Saxophone Quartet--una formazione che certo era un punto di riferimento per Dijkstra al momento ...

551
Album Review

Jorrit Dijkstra: Pillow Circles

Read "Pillow Circles" reviewed by Troy Collins


An international summit meeting, Pillow Circles joins four American jazz musicians with four Dutch improvisers. Similar in feel to his Flatlands Collective, this effort finds Dutch expatriate and multi-instrumentalist Jorrit Dijkstra paying homage to a handful of artists who have inspired him, with each piece dedicated to an individual.

Bringing an empathetic familiarity to the octet are three members of the Chicago- based Flatlands Collective--the veteran rhythm section of bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Frank Rosaly, as well ...

295
Album Review

Flatlands Collective: Maatjes

Read "Maatjes" reviewed by Wilbur MacKenzie


Maatjes, the second recording by the Flatlands Collective, captures the ensemble at the end of a European tour, with the group dynamic very well-tuned to alto saxophonist/composer Jorrit Dijkstra's compelling charts. Chicagoans Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Jeb Bishop (trombone), James Falzone (clarinet), Jason Roebke (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums) all work together to celebrate the various micro-dialogues that emerge from the Collective's highly evocative composing and very distinguished improvisational vocabularies. A long view of the Clean Feed disc ...

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“He takes his audiences on a quirky, energetic, captivating journey through a world of sound and emotion… Jorrit Dijkstra has already distinguished himself as a man to watch. A highly accomplished musician, he is a cerebral improviser who nevertheless plays with warmth and rhythmic excitement.” " Kevin Lowenthal, The Boston Globe

“The most compelling feature are the melodies… that allow for delicious textures that sound at once modern and very nostalgic." " Andrey Henkin, www.allaboutjazz.com

“Dijkstra hears the stylistic diversity within the networks that link his cohorts, and gives it space not just to breathe, but also occasionally to snort, howl and laugh riotously

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, alto

Mark Hanslip
saxophone, tenor

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Cutout

Driff Records
2020

buy

Linger

Driff Records
2018

buy

Bathysphere

Driff Records
2016

buy

Music for Reeds and...

Driff Records
2015

buy

Pillow Circles

Clean Feed Records
2010

buy

Maatjes

Clean Feed Records
2009

buy

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