Louk Boudesteijn,

Resume Louk Boudesteijn (Steinheim, 1977)
trombonist/composer/multi-instrumentalist/producer

‘To me jazz is a place where forward thinking and tradition are in a constant conversation with each other. Jazz is about the freedom of expression and celebrates individuality. Therefore Jazz equals Life!’

As a passionate player and composer myself I have always been very interested in the great composers of the 20th century such as Messiaen, Monk, Stravinsky, Ellington, Ligeti, Mingus, Berg, Bartók, Ornette and Dutch treasures such as Misha Mengelberg and Reinbert de Leeuw. But very important is to investigate the music that is happening now. Great music and art in general is about NOW and reflect on the times we live in. The creativity, imagination and craftsmanship of players like Sonny Rollins, Ry Cooder, John Coltrane, Tom Waits, Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, Eric Dolphy, Bob Dylan, Max Roach, Booker Little, John Lee Hooker and many of our contemporaries will never cease to get me excited. Music is a gift that we can study and learn from, keeping us inspired everyday of our lives. I think this eclecticism, historical knowledge and focus on individual expression will be reflected in how I write, play and teach.

Early years

Hearing old jazz-records from his mother’s collection as a young kid, he got totally hooked on music and started playing the trombone at the age of only five years old in the local concert band in which also his mother played clarinet. ‘Blues and early jazz-styles made me the happiest kid alive’. As a teenager he switched to guitar and piano and started ‘Black Jack’, a 4 piece highschool-rockband with LB now playing guitar and writing the songs. Although the guitar would never really leave, he started focusing more on the trombone by playing old style jazz & blues. As a self-taught musician with little technical and formal skills he eventually started to study jazz trombone at the conservatory in Tilburg with Hans Sparla who helped him get on track. Much appreciated Hans!

B&W

This is where he met trumpet player Rob van de Wouw and they soon started a band named 2hip2bjazz, playing original music by the two and combining jazz with- back then -the turntableism of –now- piano wizard Tony Roe. With this band Louk won a composition price for his piece ‘Joshua’.
He left Tilburg (Together with Rob) two years later to study with Bart van Lier and Ilja Reijngoud in Rotterdam. Together with trumpetplayer Rob van de Wouw, Louk started the B&W quintet (2 albums released: It’s About Time 2005 and Force of Habits 2008).
In 2001 hewon the Erasmus jazz-prize and took part in the first prestigious Carnegie Hall Jazz Training Programm (NYC) with his B&W quintet where he also got lessons from Steve Turre. ‘Our idol Jarmo Hoogendijk even flew overseas to support us, how cool is that!’
Louk graduated from the Rotterdam conservatory in 2002 with great honours.

Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra

In 2003 Louk and Rob founded the Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra with great help of Louk’s father generously offering his managing skills.
A year later arranger/conductor/bassplayer Johan Plomp joined the group. Louk, Rob and Johan form a rock solid team until 2024 as artistic directors of the band.
The RJO evolved to become the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra by the end of 2012 with a new line up in a different setting in order to accomplish their artistic goals. Leaving behind the somewhat restricting bigband format to focus more on their own original written material and genre-cutting collaborations. The players of choise are all writers and very open-minded musicians. Louk is a fanatical writer for this group and is it’s artistic director in close collaboration with Rob.
Over the years the NRJO has been collaborating with the likes of Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Frank Lacy, Jason Lindner, Frank Moebus, Nicholas Payton, Mark de Clive Lowe, (record Take the Space Train) Benjamin Herman, Eric Vloeimans, Ernst Reijseger, Anton Goudsmit (record NRJO meets AG), Andreas Schaerer, Joshua Redman, piano trio Phronesis, street poet Derek Otte (tour VERS) , Scapino Ballet, Charles Tolliver, actor Jeroen Spitzenberger and so on. Tours to Estonia and Prague.
The orchestra has released 7 albums so far with “This is not an Orchestra” (2021) being the most recent one. In 2023/24 the orchestra is celebrating their 20 year anniversary with a tour across Rotterdam’s cultural events and from 2025 finds a ‘house’ in co-production with leading Rotterdam venue Lantaren Venster.

Van Kemenade

Louk has been collaborating with altoist Paul van Kemenade’s groups starting in 2002 and powerhouse Van Kemenade has been a steady factor ever since.
The Paul van Kemenade Quintet (since 1982!) toures internationally, often joined by guest musicians such as “les freres Guisse” from Senegal, and because of Paul’s longtime connection with South Africa with people like Feya Faku, Sidney Mnisi, Bheki Khoza, Sonti Mndebele, Kesivan Naaidoo, Mandla Mlangeni and Andile Yenana in the Netherlands as well as in SA. There also have been collaborations with singer David Lynx.
Another Van Kemenade band is ‘Three Horns and a bass’ with alongside its leader and Boudesteijn also Flugelhornplayer Angelo Verploegen and bassist Wiro Mahieu. Tours in a.o. Europe, (South) Africa, China and Russia. LB is featured on 11 Van Kemenade albums so far.
In 2024 Paul concluded his career with a last tour and retired from the music scene. His music and attitude are engraved in Louk’s musical dna.

Weller

In 2003 together with fellow horn players Jan van Duikeren and Benjamin Herman he joins British pop icon, the modfather Paul Weller’s band for a couple of big European tours as well as the recording of the albums ‘Studio 150’ and ‘As is Now’. Louk also appeared on Jonathan Ross with Weller playing ‘Here’s the good news’.

Horn section

Together with fellow horn players Jan van Duikeren and Guido Nijs he forms
The Special Request Horns, playing with Dutch pop/reggae stars BEEF! and releasing their own funk/jazz album ‘Volume 1’.
The Special Request Horns since then have been touring and recording with the likes of The Golden Earring , Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Leon Ware, Candy Dulfer, extensive international tours with Caro Emerald, Kenny B (Surinam trip), Marco Borsato, Racoon, Bløf and many others.
Their sound has well been documented on about a 100 albums. Since 2016 they play with The Hague rockband Di-rect and will celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary with 3 concerts in legendary venue De Kuip in Rotterdam which also will be the last concerts in this venue ever. Louk is also playing some guitar again in this band.

Teaching

From 2005 – 2008: teaching jazz trombone with Bert Boeren as a guest teacher at Fontys Conservatory Tilburg. Also taught at the Vaduz International Jazz Workshop 2010 and attendednumerous final exams as a member of committee over the years. Improvisation and composition are my main subjects.
With the New Rdam Jazz Orchestra we organise a fantastic annual kids-jazz project called IKEI in association with the SKVR and primary schools in Rotterdam. Since 2024 the NRJO collaborates with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in this project and form a more hybrid collective.

Bands

In need of a new vehicle to play his now more rock-based originals he launched eletrofreefunkrock-band FULLDUPLEXX in 2010 with their debut album ‘F.FWD’. The record is released on Branko van Kooten’s Embrace Recordings and the band plays a.o. at the North Sea Jazz Festival 2011. The 2nd album ‘Modern People’ is released on January 17th 2014 again on Embrace Recordings. ‘Waterboarding’ and ‘Picture Music’ turn out to be ‘survivor tunes’ and are still being played in different settings.
Together with guitar-hero Anton Goudsmit and saxophone giant Nils van Haften he formed the chamber –jazz trio EINZELGÄNGER in 2015. The group mainly perform LB original compositions, released their debut album ‘MUSICA GYMNASTICA’ in 2016 and played a.o. at the North Sea Jazz Festival 2018. This group is currently in sleep mode partially due to the following:

Bonsai Panda

In 2019 Louk started collaborating with young guitar powerhouse and fellow composing-fanatic Jelle Roozenburg on a new project called Bonsai Panda. Beats & sounds master Jimmi Jo Hueting, French horn-guru Romain Bly and eclectic reed-master David Kweksilber complete the line up. Their twin LP’s ‘SHORT TERM MEMORY MUSIC 1 & 2’ are recorded in July 2019 and ‘STMM 1’ is released in July 2020. Soon they set up the Bonsai Music Foundation to help realize their musical dreams. In 2020’s Lockdown-periods the Panda’s also recorded ‘ADEM’; 2 pieces for band and mixed choir, reflecting on the current changes in the world, written by Boudesteijn & Roozenburg as a result of a composition-assignement commisioned by the Gergiev Festival. As members of the Batavierhuis in Rotterdam they also wrote and recorded Bonsai Organ Music; two pieces for band organ and church, recorded live in the Laurenskerk. Next up were the recordings of Louk’s Bonsai Stringquartets; 4 pieces for stringquartet & (electronic) drums, co- produced by Jimmi Jo Hueting and Jelle’s Bonsai Wind-quartets for winds and electronics to complete yet another 2 albums in 2022. In 2021 Louk received a composition assignment from VNJJ for De week van de jazz and wrote the Bonsai Symphony which the Panda’s performed in the Armeniuskerk in their self curated Club Bonsai in co-production with RAUW/Jazz International. ADEM was also performed that night with the choir as well as ‘Altaar der Liefde’ (Louk’s piece “Bonsai Panda” with lyrics). In 2023 Louk recorded ‘FRIPS’ on piano in duo with fellow Panda David Kweksilber on bassclarinet for his new project ‘RIETVOGELS’ for which he invites reed players in duo/trio settings, now mostly playing guitar and piano. In December 2024 Bonsai Panda released their new full-length album ‘TOUT GALORE’, co-produced by Simon Akkermans.

Rocketeers

Louk also co-wrote and produced songs for American singer Lucy Woodward, such as “Big Bones”, “Rocketeer”, “Clenched Fists” and recorded/arranged and produced a version of “When you wish upon a star” ( 2023). Her album “Stories from the Dust” was released in 2024. An even crazier undertaking are The Rocketeers, a bigband that playes fresh new arrangements of classic songs and originals, arrangenged and co-written by Louk. This (live) recording was released on GroundUp in 2024. The Rocketeers project will go live in 2026 and record again. Louk will contribute a collection of new big band-compositions for this album.

Besides all this

Louk has been playing throughout the years with: Metropole Orkest (steady substitude for Bart van Lier 2005-2019 on many projects and recordings), a Long-term collaboration (writing and playing) with singer-songwriter Margriet Sjoerdsma A.K.A. Oldelion currently as the Odelion Orchestra (Indonesia tour), Jo Goes Hunting XL, Cubop City Bigband (Caribbean tour/Colombia), Nueva Manteca (Mexico tour), New Cool Collective Bigband, Panchito, NDR bigband, WDRbigband, Anouk, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (Japan tour), Martin Fondse’s Groove Troopers (SA tour) ,Erik van de Westen’s Quadrant extended, Monsieur Dubois, Raise the Roof, Gijs Hendriks Nonet, Mieke Stiemerdink, Pierre Courbois, Waterland ensemble, Palinkx, Ineke van Doorn en Marc van Vught’s Big Bizar Habit, Freek de Jonge, Beets Brothers Orchestra en tal van musici waaronder o.a. Benny Bailey, Caito Marcondes, Benjamin Herman, Eric Vloeimans, Yuri Honing, Ack van Rooyen, Piet Noordijk, Bart van Lier and many others.
His latest most notable collaborations as a sideman are those with Marike van Dijk’s nonet (Album ‘Stranded’ 2023) and her recently formed Nu Art Orchestra, a bigband also showcasing some of the most talented female jazz players and focussing on original music.
Louk also arranged “FRIPS” for this orchestra and wrote ‘FAN-FAN-FARE’ (I.M. Reinbert de Leeuw) for their debut album as to be recorded in 2025.
Since 2023 Louk is also collaborating with Utrecht-based singer/songwriter Bas Beenackers. (self-titled album 2023) and collaborated with Di-rect lead singer Marcel Veenendaal for his upcoming solo-debut album.