BART VAN LIER

Bart van Lier

Bart van Lier (Haarlem, 14 June 1950) is the most important trombonist of his generation in the conventional jazz styles. He starts out as a studio musician, develops into a leading soloist and later becomes an important mentor for an entire generation of trombonists. As a jazz improviser he combines ...
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Instruments

euphonium, trombone

Mentioned in the biography of

1970   Max Teawhistle
1977   Joan Reinders
1997   Ilja Reijngoud
2004   Benjamin Herman
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Biography Bart van Lier

Bart van Lier (Haarlem, 14 June 1950) is the most important trombonist of his generation in the conventional jazz styles. He starts out as a studio musician, develops into a leading soloist and later becomes an important mentor for an entire generation of trombonists. As a jazz improviser he combines a great finesse with a flawless technique – which he studiously keeps up on a daily basis – and a feeling for adventure. No two of his solos are identical, and every single one is a jump in the dark. The jury which awarded him the 2000 Jazz in Duketown Award puts it like this: 'His style is characterized by a fluid melody formation, in combination with his fabulous technique. He can reach the extremes of his instrument and does so in a tasteful and artistic manner, in which technique is never a goal in itself, but is always used to serve his muse.'

Played in

Metropole Orkest   trombone
Netherlands Concert Jazz Band  
Nueva Manteca   trombone
Skymasters   trombone

1968 - 1975

Bart van Lier is born into a very musical family. His father, trumpeter Cor van Lier, was a professional musician in his younger years, and later manifests himself in jazzclubs. His older brother Erik makes a name for himself as an in demand bass trombonist in studios all over Europe. Another brother, alto saxophonist Kees, decides to take up a career in business, but has always kept playing semi-professionally. At the age of eight Bart van Lier starts playing the cornet in the Loosdrecht brass band Nieuw Leven. As a tender teenager he switches to trombone, and before his eighteenth birthday he lands a job in the VARA Dansorkest (a radio dance band). Since there is no conservatory jazz course (they wouldn't start until ten years later) he decides to study at the Hilversum Muzieklyceum. Pretty soon he can be found in the ranks of big bands like the Skymasters and the Ramblers, and in orchestras led by Tony Nolte and Rogier van Otterloo.

Cor van Lier Rogier van Otterloo Skymasters The Ramblers Tony Nolte

1976 - 1991

Van Lier has been in music fulltime for a number of years when he starts developing as jazz soloist. At night he gigs in bars with pianist Arnold Klos and others. It gives the trombonist room to experiment to his heart's content. He largely trusts his ears, thus developing a melodic, somewhat whimsical way of improvising, which always keeps up with the chord changes thanks to his keen hearing. Van Lier starts his own quartet and from the second half of the seventies becomes an in demand sideman in various small formations; one of the first being pianist Cees Slinger's Just in Case. His work in the studios continues undiminished, now also in Germany, where he joins the brass section of Peter Herbolzheimer's Rhythm & Brass. The experienced section player becomes an expert in 'mixing' with other horns, a quality he considers just as important as soloing.

Cees Slinger

1992 - 2010

When Van Lier joins the Metropole Orchestra in 1992, he is the uncrowned trombone king of the Dutch conservatories. He takes on a sixty percent job in the orchestra in order to have some time for his own concert practice and his work as a teacher. At the Rotterdam Conservatory he starts a special trombone department in 1999. Together with his former student Ilja Reijngoud he offers the most talented young trombonists the opportunity to hone their skills. In 1994 he publishes the teaching method Coordination Training Program for Trombone Playing. It is now available in five languages. He is the co-inventor of Bart van Lier tenor trombone and is still up early every morning to warm up in the practice room over the garage of his terrace house in the town of Huizen. 'When I don't practice enough, I immediately start noticing it,' he tells the Utrecht Nieuwsblad in 2000. 'Your sound becomes more rugged, and that is murder for your lips and for the music. Yes – it's a damned difficult instrument.' He seems to be improvising with the ease of a child coming down a slide, but that's only appearance. 'It's a matter of studying-studying-studying, until making music has become a kind of yoga. You can only turn in a peak performance when your mind is free. You study until the notes fall into place by themselves.' He can be seen on stage regularly with the Cubop orchestra Nueva Manteca, his own Bart's Bones and many large and small outfits that want to engage him as a soloist for longer or shorter periods.

Ilja Reijngoud Metropole Orkest

Audio/Video Bart van Lier