Eric Vloeimans

Eric Vloeimans is an award-winning jazz trumpeter, songwriter, and record producer. With his crisp attack and rich tone, he is arguably the most famous jazz trumpeter in the Netherlands. Throughout his long career, Vloeimans has consistently colored outside defined genre lines. He continually melds jazz with influences ranging from classical, pop music, folk, and even electronica by using a wide array of effects on his horn. He has collaborated with a number of DJs and producers including Armin van Buuren. Vloeimans initially studied classical music in elementary and secondary school. He was a music major at the Rotterdam Academy of Music. He got interested in jazz after meeting musicians from that department and switched. He graduated in 1988 with honors and continued his studies in New York City with Donald Byrd and playing in the big bands of Frank Foster and Mercer Ellington. After returning to the Netherlands, he began working with a wide variety of jazzmen including pianist Michiel Borstlap and cellist Ernst Reijseger. He has also worked with American jazz players including drummer Joey Baron and bassist Marc Johnson and the late British pianist John Taylor on his Edison Award-winning album Bitches and Fairy Tales in 1999. Two years later, Vloeimans won a second Boy Edgar Award for 2001's Umai, featuring Taylor and drummer Joe La Barbera. Vloiemans won a Bird Award in 2002 (as "best jazz trumpeter") and the Gouden Nutcracker in 2011 for Heavensabove in the best Dutch Jazz Album category. In addition to recording at least an album a year through the '90s and into the 21st century -- including 2013's celebrated Oliver's Cinema and Oliver's Cinema: Act 2 in 2015 -- he has taken part in many collaborations, including work with French/Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê, Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, Finnish drummer/percussionist Markku Ounaskari, American bassist Jimmy Haslip, and Norwegian pianist/producer Bugge Wesseltoft. The trumpeter formed a new trio called Levanter with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and pianist Jeroen Van Vliet. Their self-titled album was issued in early 2018. ~ Thom Jurek