Gijs Hendriks (1938) has played jazz from age seven. Improvised music is his life. Filmmaker Ellen Blom also captured sessions where he played with fellow-musicians.
Gijs Hendriks (1938) has played jazz from age seven. He started out in Frankfurt, playing to the American troops, and successively lived in Germany, France and Morocco. In the 1960s, he returned to Utrecht. He joined the influential Dutch jazz band The Boy Edgar Ochestra and played with Art Taylor, Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, Nina Simone and Betty Carter. For the music by his own band, he won prestigious awards like the Wessel Ilcken Prize, the Culture Award of the City of Utrecht, the VARA Jazz Award and the Zilveren Stadspenning.
Filmmaker Ellen Blom followed Hendriks over a longer period of time and captured several sessions where he played with fellow-musicians. Improvised music is his life. His music has a sovereign character: melancholy, impulsive, unpredictable, technical, subtle and variegated. But how do you save the music played by ‘instant composers’ for eternity?
Filmmaker Ellen Blom followed Hendriks over a longer period of time and captured several sessions where he played with fellow-musicians. Improvised music is his life. His music has a sovereign character: melancholy, impulsive, unpredictable, technical, subtle and variegated. But how do you save the music played by ‘instant composers’ for eternity?
Credits
Director
Producer
Sound editing
Sound Design
Montage
Production company
Viewpoint Productions
TV company
NTR TV
RTV Utrecht
RTV Utrecht
NFF Archive
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Stills
