Jasper van Hulten

Jasper van Hulten, born in 1981 in Breda, the Netherlands, grew up in a family where music was all around. His father was always singing and playing French ‘chansons’ on the guitar, and his mother sang classical choirmusic and played the piano. Jasper developed a strong hearing from an early age and would be beating on everything he could find. After trying different instruments at the local music school, and the advice to play the violin, he intuitively chose for the drums as his ‘voice’, and started taking drumlessons at the local music school at the age of six. Ten years later he got admitted to the Rotterdam conservatory, where he graduates in 2002. During his music studies he develops as an all-round musician, playing in many different formations and various musical styles such as jazz, pop, fusion and latin-american. In his final year (2002 he joins some of his friends in a new group: The Young Sinatra’s, which gave him the opportunity to play at numerous jazzfestivals in the Netherlands and Europe, including the North Sea jazz festival. In the years after, he would play and record albums with many other artists and bands like Sensual, Ad Colen, Soo Cho, Angelo Verploegen, Tutu Puoane and Anne Chris. In 2005, Jasper joins singer-songwriter Wouter Hamel’s band. After winning the Dutch Jazz Vocalist- prize that year they record their first album ‘Hamel’. The song ‘Breezy’ turned into a radio-hit, the album got the golden status for 15.000 copies sold in the Netherlands. It also got picked up by a Japanese label, which granted them yearly Asian tours ever since, mainly in Japan and South-Korea, but also in China and Indonesia. Their second album ‘Nobody’s Tune’, even got a platinum status, for 60.000 albums sold in the Netherlands. Now, their sixth album ‘Boystown’ was just released. In 2006, trumpetplayer Eric Vloeimans’ formed his electric impro-group Gatecrash. They have recorded three albums, won an Edison award and played concerts in The Netherlands, United States, China, Japan, South-Korea, Australia and South-Africa. After some years of silence, the band is now working on their fourth album and a tour is coming up in 2020. Besides this, Jasper is playing with Portugese singer Maria Mendes. They have just finished recording their third album, produced by Grammy-award winning producer John Beasley. Also, Jasper plays in pianist Wolfert Brederode’s trio. They have recorded the Album ‘Black Ice’ in 2016 for the renowned label ECM, produced by the legendary Manfred Eicher. Furthermore, Jasper has played with many great artists like Bert van den Brink, Harmen Fraanje, Michiel Borstlap, Jeroen van Vliet, Cor Bakker, Rob van Bavel, Hein van de Geyn, Peter Tiehuis, Karel Boehlee, Theo de Jong, Paul Berner, Ed Verhoeff, Benjamin Herman, Anton Goudsmit, Ilja Reijngoud, Fay Claassen, Jesse van Ruller, Kyteman, Gino Vannelli, Wende Snijders, Deborah Carter, Martin Verdonk, amongst many others. Today, Jasper is a very active and versatile musician, always looking for new ways to approach music and his instrument. His goal is to serve the music with open ears, and to blend in with the right sound and feel.

About this album “The Duke Book” he writes: “I have definitely enjoyed recording this album with great trumpetplayer and friend Angelo Verploegen, for the space, input, interaction and creativity it requires to play in duo. It was recorded in such beautiful conditions, both acoustically and technically. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it!”

photo: from booklet ‘The Duke Book’ JL019