Joris Roelofs

Joris Roelofs (1984) is a (bass) clarinetist, saxophonist and composer from Amsterdam. He was a member of the Vienna Art Orchestra from 2005 – 2010. Joris finished his masters at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2007, and lived in New York City between 2008-2011. In 2001 he won the Pim Jacobs Prize, and in 2003 he was the first non-American to receive the Stan Getz/Clifford Brown Fellowship Award in the US, organized by the IAJE. In 2004 Joris received the first prize of the prestigious Deloitte Jazz Award in the Netherlands. In 2008 he was selected for the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. Among others, Joris has played with Brad Mehldau, Christina Branco, Lionel Loueke, ICP Orchestra, Han Bennink, James Carter, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. In 2010 he was asked by Brad Mehldau to perform with him at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Sanders Theatre in Boston.

In 2015 Mehldau asked Joris to be part of a new project with cello, piano and clarinet: music written by Mehldau for a silent movie called ‘Salvation Hunters’ (von Sternberg). In a Dutch TV show, at age 16, Joris performed the clarinet introduction of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue with the Orkest van het Oosten, and was featured as a soloist with the Jazz Orchestra Of The Concertgebouw. As a leader he performed several times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Smalls Jazz Club in NYC, among other places. Since 2008 he’s been touring in Europe with his own projects including Aaron Goldberg, Ari Hoenig, Reginald Veal, Joe Sanders, Greg Hutchinson, and Johannes Weidenmüller. In 2007 he recorded his debut album Introducing Joris Roelofs (Material Records).

Joris also plays in a co-led trio, Chamber Tones, with Jesse van Ruller and Clemens van der Feen. They released two albums: Chamber Tones and The Ninth Planet, and have performed in Europe and Asia. Joris’ CD Live At The Bimhuis was released in 2011 and was nominated for an Edison in 2012. He put together another trio in 2011 with Ted Poor and Matt Penman, featuring Joris on bass clarinet, and this has been his steady trio for the past few years. Pirouet Records released two of their trio albums: Aliens Deliberating (2014) and Amateur Dentist (2015).

Joris also plays lead alto in the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and is a member of Reinier Baas vs. Princess Discombobulatrix. In 2016 Joris started a new duo with the legendary drummer Han Bennink. As a result of the North Sea Jazz composition assignment in 2016, he composed Rope Dance: music for bassoon, piano, drums and bass, based on Nietzsche’s notion of the rope dancer in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

As a sideman Joris has played at a large number of international jazz festivals and jazz clubs, all over the world. Joris is currently living in Amsterdam, where he is studying philosophy. In 2016, Joris started teaching bass clarinet and clarinet as principal subjects at the Jazz Department of the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Show less