HANS VAN LEEUWEN jazz guitarist gitaar gitarist

Winner Loosdrecht Jazz Concours 1962

New!

Jazzcollector Paul Karting (Rotterdam) recently discovered a tape of a jam session which I did with tenorist Johnny Griffin in 1963. Listen to this mp3-clip and many others on my soundclick website:

Jay Jay Blues clip from the 1963-EP more

BIO
My roots are in the 50's when players like Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery paved the way for later generations of jazzguitarists. Now, 50 years later, I conclude that these players are still standing! Although many great talents appear nowadays, and styles are changing and developing to the highest musical standard, we may never forget the work of these early pioneers.

I started playing in 1954, inspired by guitarists Les Paul and Django Rheinhardt. The late Wim Overgaauw (founding father of jazzguitar playing in Holland) encouraged me to start listening to guitarists like Barney Kessel and Tal Farlow and to specialize in what was then called ‘modern jazz’ (now mainstream or ‘bebop’). In those days studying jazz guitar meant painstakingly listening to records and finding things out yourself. My efforts resulted in the first prize at the Loosdrecht Jazzconcours in 1962. This in turn led to my first appearance abroad after an invitation of Rob Pronk for a solo concert with the famous Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra in Cologne/Germany.
During the 1960’s I was active as a pro, doing a lot of jazz gigs with many well known Dutch jazz musicians. Prominent pianist Frans Elsen taught me the basics of big band-arranging. To my surprise I actually managed to sell some of my arrangements to well known radio orchestra’s like The Skymasters and Boy’s Big Band. I also wrote for my own sextet and did some teaching and guitar workshops. Unfortunately during that same period the public interest in jazz started to decline. It was the time of the Beatles, flowerpower and hippies. Therefore I took up my chemistry studies again in 1969. To expand my musical horizon I studied flamenco guitar and lute. But of course the jazz guitar remained my main interest and every now and then I play in jazzclubs again, joining the many great talents that appear nowadays. email me

West Coast Blues (clip from the CD) more See my version of ‘Django’ on YouTube

Jazz at Donner, 2006 –

1960’s Revival Quartet

Peter Snoei †, Jaap Gerritsen, Hans van Leeuwen, Johan Dielemans.

Foto Henk Visser

Nostalgia:

My Trio in 1963 with

Aad Groenenboom, drums

Hans van Weel, bas