Dick de Graaf Tenor-and soprano-saxophonist Dick de Graaf debuted 1986 with his acclaimed LP ‘Hot, hazy and humid’ (Limetree Records). Before he had already wun the Dutch Jazz Competition and he had played an important role as a soloist in a.o. the Amstel Octet and in the big bands led by John Clayton and Frank Grasso. During the last 20 years he has performed at many national and international jazzstages. He played with a.o. Chet Baker, Misha Mengelberg, Jasper van ’t Hof, Kenny Weeler, Tom Harrell, Benny Golson, Billy Hart, Toumani Diabaté and Erkan Ogur and toured festivals and clubs in Europe, South and West Africa, the USA, Japan, New Zealand, USA and Canada. Dick de Graaf recorded a dozen CD’s that received positive response by both public and press. His CD’s ‘Sailing’ and ‘New York Straight Ahead’ got enthusiast critics in the important music magazine Down Beat. His project ‘The Burning of the Midnight Lamp: Dick de Graaf plays Jimi Hendrix’ appeared to be very succesful. With his Dick de Graaf Septet he has been drawing full houses in Holland, Germany, Austria, Ireland and Finland. Another example of his broad musical horizon is the project he recorded in Mali with a group of young musicians from Bamako: the CD ‘Djigui: les Sofas de Bamako featuring Dick de Graaf’. June 2000 this group made his European debut during the Festival Mundial 2000 in Tilburg. On his hybrid superaudio CD ‘Four Winds’ he continues his tracking of multicultural music. On this CD a sextet with a.o. Inga Juuso (Samiland), Moussa Diallo and Mamadou Diabaté (Mali) play a handful of Dick’s originals. 2001 Dick released his internationally acclaimed album SOUND ROOTS Dick de Graaf meets Peter Martin, Roland Guerin and Adonis Rose Trio in New Orleans. A-records (AL 73222). To promote this record he started his European SOUNDROOTS quartet and toured Europe, Indonesia and Singapore. In june 2003 the CD SCHUBERT IMPRESSIONS FOR JAZZ QUINTET was released on the swiss DiVox label at the Northsea Jazz Festival followed by a long series of concerts. Following his Schubert Impressions, Dick presented another jazz-meets-classic project, A TOUCH OF BELA, in Hungary during the Esztergom Bela Bartok Festival with the Robi Lakatos Trio, july 2005. Among his recent projects are Trio Nuevo: Jazz Meets Tango and his new Dick de Graaf Quartet 'Moving Target' (both available on this site). In corporation with Kalan Records in Istanbul he produced the CD Istanbul Connection (with a.o. guitar virtuoso Erkan Ogur) recently. Dick de Graaf is a part-time teacher of saxophone and ensembles at the jazz department of the well-known Rotterdams Conservatorium. He is an endorser and clinician of Keilwerth saxophones and Rico Jazz Select saxophone reeds. Website: http://www.dickdegraaf.com CD's: Dick de Graaf Quartet - Moving Target »»»