Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Clemens van der Feen Band: High Places (2011)

After some occasional drumming on various items, Clemens (1980) began singing and playing bass guitar in the band of his older brothers (the Feenbrothers) at the age of eleven. Later on, he studied jazz and classical bass at the Conservatories of Amsterdam and Detmold (Germany) and received his Master Degree with honors.
After playing with world famous orchestras like the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, he decided to focus solely on jazz and improvised music. He lived in New York for a while to take private lessons with Ben Street and John Pattituci, among others.
Clemens has won several jazz awards, including first prize at the Capbreton Bass Encounter in 1999 (France). He also won Best New Talent Award in the 2001 Dutch Jazz Competition and the Ruud Jacobs Award. In 2009, he was semi-finalist at the Thelonious Monk Competition in Washington.
Clemens co-leads a band called Narcissus, with reedman Robin Verheyen, drummer Flin van Hemmen and pianist Jozef Dumoulin. In 2010 he started is own group called the Clemens van der Feen Band, which features guitarist Jesse van Ruller, Harmen Fraanje (piano/wurlitzer), Flin van Hemmen (drums) and his brother Paul van der Feen (saxophones). The album also features the great Toots Thielemans and has appearred in January 2011.
Currently, Clemens is playing with the Michael Moore Quartet, Roelofs/Ruller/Feen trio, Harmen Fraanje Trio, Ensemble a l’improviste, Franz von Chossy Trio, Paul Wiltgen Group and the Toots Thielemans Quartet. Clemens also performed with Eric Vloeimans, Tony Malaby, Nelson Veras, Karel Boehlee, Nelson Veras, Seamus Blake, Gino Vannelli, Toon Roos, Rick Margitza, Bill Carrothers and many more. Clemens has been playing all over the world from jazz clubs in Paris and Tokyo to the Musikverein in Vienna and Carnegie Hall in New York. Since 2010, Clemens teaches bass at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
Tracklist
01. Peaceguns
02. Brothers
03. Intro
04. Baby baby
05. The devil's delusion
06. Round it goes
07. End of the walk
08. Happy and rich
09. Tuesday
10. High places
11. Middle of the seven
12. Ziel
High Places
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