JAN HUYDTS

Jan Huydts

Jan Huydts (Schiedam, 25 February 1937) originally intends to study medicine. In his high school years in Hilversum he takes private lessons from Pierre Reinard and becomes a skillful pianist. In the holiday between high school and university bassist Arend Nijenhuis persuades him to start a jazz trio and become ...
Full biography

Instruments

arrangeur, componist, piano, synthesizer, toetsinstrumenten

Mentioned in the biography of

1967   Wim Sonneveld
1972   Ritmo Natural

Biography Jan Huydts

Jan Huydts (Schiedam, 25 February 1937) originally intends to study medicine. In his high school years in Hilversum he takes private lessons from Pierre Reinard and becomes a skillful pianist. In the holiday between high school and university bassist Arend Nijenhuis persuades him to start a jazz trio and become a professional musician. The following years Huydts plays piano in jazz bands exclusively. In the mid sixties he shifts his musical activities to playing with cabaret performers like Toon Hermans and Wim Sonneveld, where he plays both bass and piano. He then switches back to jazz (rock), and becomes one of the first Dutch musicians to play electronic keyboards like the Fender piano and various synthesizers. As such Jan Huydts is especially popular in Germany. In 1980 he is appointed as a piano teacher at the Hilversum Conservatory. When this institution merges with the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory he retires as deputy director of the jazz department in 1998.

Played in

Dutch Treat   componist, producer, toetsinstrumenten

1957 - 1958

As a professional jazz musician he forms his own trio, with bassist Arend Nijenhuis and drummer Hans Dolman. From his hometown Hilversum Huydts explores the Dutch jazz scene. Soon the trio, with guitarist Thijmen Hoolwerf as Dolman's replacement, is engaged by the Flamingo nightclubs in both The Hague and Scheveningen.

1959

Jan Huydts plays in the Brussels Blue Note, as sideman to the Americans Jackie McLean and Arthur Taylor. He joins the Herman Schoonderwalt Quartet, featuring drummer Cees See and bassist Eddy Doorenbos. For a while he is also a member of The Millers, with alto saxophonist Piet Noordijk, pianist Paul Ruys, drummer Tonny Nüsser and leader-guitarist Ab de Molenaar. The Trio Jan Huydts wins the Parool Jazz Parade (a jazz competition organized by newspaper Het Parool) at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

1961

Huydts signs a contract for six months as bassist with a German show orchestra at an American air force base in Tripoli (Libya). The pianist in this orchestra is fellow Dutchman Frans Elsen.

1963 - 1964

The Trio Jan Huydts, with bassist Peter Trunk and drummer Joe Nay, is afforded an engagement at the Berlin Blue Note, and accompanies Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Donald Byrd and others.

1964 - 1966

Huydts becomes the bassist in the band of cabaret performer Toon Hermans's One Man Show. He occasionally plays as a pianist in the Amsterdam jazzclub Sheherezade.

1967 - 1970

Jan Huydts is musical director and pianist for cabaret performer Wim Sonneveld, for whom he co-composes and arranges all the songs in his cabaret program. Huydts is the composer of the well-known tune Josephine. A DVD and LP/CD of this program ('De Wim en Inashow') have been released.

1970 - 1976

Huydts tours Europe as a keyboard player with the Dutch-German jazz-rock band Third Eye. This formation consists of drummer Leo de Ruiter, bassist Alfred Haurand, guitarist John Schuursma, and guest musicians like soprano saxophonist Theo Loevendie, the American trumpeter Jon Eardley and the Jamaican saxophonist Wilton Gaynair, who makes a name for himself in the WDR Jazz orchestra and the Kurt Edelhagen band.

1976

Together with Rob Franken and drummer Henk Zomer Jan Huydts forms The Keyboard Circle. Franken en Huydts play a number of electronic keyboards. They pick the name because their instruments are positioned in a circle around Zomer's drum kit. A VPRO radio recording from 1976, that was never aired, surfaces in 2009 and is released on CD.

1977

Huydts tours Italy and England as pianist in guitarist Wim Overgaauw's orchestra for the production Strangers by the Nederlands Danstheater ballet troupe. He makes records with Wim Overgaauw, and (a self-produced record) with bassist Wim Essed in Germany.

1978 - 1980

Singer Jasperina de Jong signs Jan Huydts as the musical director and arranger for two of her theater shows: Thuis Best and Tussen Zomer en Winter. Video and audio recordings were made of the latter show.

1980

Jan Huydts is appointed as a piano teacher and coordinator of the jazz department at the Muziekpedagogische Academie in Hilversum, which soon will go by the new name of Hilversum Conservatory.

1985

Because of the enormous growth of the jazz department he is appointed deputy director of the conservatory.

1998

Huydts opts for an early retirement when the Hilversum Conservatory and the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory merge.

1999 - 2002

During the winter months Huydts organizes and presents a series of concerts with Dutch jazz musicians on Sunday afternoons in the Hilversum CNM-studio.

2003 - 2016

Jan Huydts occasionally performs with various jazz groups in Dutch jazzclubs and other venues. His last performance is on 5 May 2007 at De Tor in Enschede, with bassist Ruud Ouwehand, guitarist Peter Nieuwerf and singer Greetje Kauffeld.

Greetje Kauffeld

Photos Jan Huydts

Audio/Video Jan Huydts