YOUNG VIPS TOUR 2004

Two very promising bands present themselves on a number of prominent jazz stages. The programmers of the Vereniging of Jazz and Improvisation Podia (VIP) nominated tenor player Sjoerd Dijkhuizen as Young VIP 2004. Dijkhuizen was raised with bebop, especially with the Blue Note variation of Hank Mobley and his kindred spirits; relaxing, spacious and with a strong sense of blues. This makes him a popular soloist in the Rein de Graaff Quartet and big bands like the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw of which he is a member since the very beginning. The As Guests Quartet has won this year’s Dutch Jazz Competition. The band, led by Czech Herak and Slovak Vanoucek, brings ‘an original mix of European and American jazz, with great combined play and interaction’, according to the professional jury.