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photo: Jacky Lepage

Theo de JONG

bass guitar


Born as a child of two musicians he started fooling around with all kinds of instruments (ukulule, guitar, piano, etc.) already at very young age and started playing bassguitar when he was 11.
Popmusic was his first interest and he became a member of several popgroups. Around the age of 15 he started visiting the local jazzclub and got familiar with the standard jazzrepertoire. Still at school he did a lot of studiowork, mainly commercials and filmmusic.

From the age of 19 he started playing/touring/recording with Dutch celebrities like KAYAK, EKSEPTION, Kaz LUX, Herman VAN VEEN, Harry SACKSIONI, Lori SPEY, Fred LEEFLANG, Floor VAN ZUTPHEN, Ack VAN ROOYEN, Eef ALBERS, Wim OVERGAAUW, Jasper VAN 'T HOF, Chris HINZE, Joop SCHOLTEN, Harry VERBEEKE, and many others.

At the age of 23 Theo de JONG played in the Rob FRANKEN trio with drummer Bruno CASTELLUCCI, accompanying great musicians like Dizzy GILLESPIE, Bobby MALACH, Victor FELDMAN, Philip CATHERINE, Dee DANIELS, Marjory BARNES, Ed THIGPEN, Tony SCOTT, etc...

In several ways Dutch pianist Rob FRANKEN has been a very important influence for his musical career. This trio was also the steady trio of Toots THIELEMANS whom he played with for about four years, also with Michel HERR.
During these concerts Theo had a lot of opportunity to develop his soloplaying. He also played a lot of incidental concerts with acts like Flora PURIM and Airto MOREIRA, Paquito d' RIVERA, Peter HERBOLZHEIMER's Rhythm & Brass Big Band, etc...

From 1983 till 1987 Theo de JONG was occupied almost solely with the latinband BATIDA with percussionplayer Nippy NOYA. With this band he recently started playing again preparing a reuniontour.

After having done a lot of concerts and an album with this band he decided to "leave the stage" for a while and started teaching on the Conservatories of Hilversum and Utrecht. Off time he teaches at the "Jazz au vert"-workshop of "Les Lundis d' Hortense".

In the past few years he again worked as a freelance musician doing recording sessions (like Sesame Street, Klokhuis, Chris HINZE, etc...) and concerts (Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER, MAURANE, Eef ALBERS, Humphrey CAMPBELL, ALVORADA, Frits LANDESBERGEN, Ivan PADUART, Gino LATTUCA, Philip CATHERINE, Marcia MARIA, Nippy NOYA, Dado MORONI, etc...) and expanded his teaching abilities creating new ideas for students on how to approach improvised music (see our Jazz Education Page).

Theo de JONG is or has recently been a member of the following groups:

And you can see him often "jamming just for fun" playing either in "Jazzcafe Hopper" in Antwerpen (Belgium) or "Cafe 't Oude Pothuys" in Utrecht (Holland) every now and then.

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