Marc van Roon, Frans van den Hoeven, and Roy Dackus, comprise the European Jazz Trio. They have been recording and performing together since 1995 when they released a CD with new arrangements of Beatles songs. The trio has given jazz interpretations to songs of every shape and color on each album. The trio defines jazz as the ability to mix and match styles, melodies and rhythms to create something new and unexpected. Van Roon: “The trio’s speciality is to find unusual material, unusual in jazz settings, and arrange it for them. You can take a jazz trio’s sound and give it a fresh, new voice. Or you can give everyone a chance hear them in a completely different way. The European Jazz Trio is pushing the boundaries of jazz music by adding its own sound and rhythm to the music. This is a result from the influences of the trio’s musicians. “We were raised in the seventies and eighties, listening to pop, rock, classical, hip-hop, and a lot of fusion music. Jazz wasn’t the only thing. We musicians try to absorb all the information like sponges and make use of it. We love classical music, and it is very European to us. The trio records every song with the sole purpose of capturing the essence and inner beauty of each composition. You cannot approach every song the same way. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with our collective goals. It’s already in the song. It’s all about what we can leave out and what we don’t have to do. Each performance is unique and special because of this. Since 1995’s release of “Memories of Liverpool”, the European Jazz trio has been recording new albums each year. All recordings are produced by Makoto KIMATA, a Tokyo-based jazz producer. Hiro Yamashita, a record label M, has co-produced the most recent albums.
