Chris Smildiger

Christiaan Henderik "Chris" Smildiger (born March 2, 1929 in The Hague ; † October 21, 2010 there ) was a Dutch athlete and jazz musician ( double bass , piano , also clarinet ). As a runner , he specialized in the 400 m route, where he was twice Dutch champion. After his sports career, he was successfully active in traditional jazz for several decades.

Live and act

Smildiger received four years of classical piano lessons from 1936, later lessons from Lex Moser. After the Second World War he took private double bass lessons for several years. He then played as a solo pianist for the clubs of the US Army in France and Germany. He then worked for three years as a ship pianist on the Holland-America Line . In the early 1950s he performed with his own combos and with the Ultra Marine Jazz Band .

He also did athletics. In 1953 Smildiger ran the 400 m in 50.5 s for VenL Den Haag and took the title from last year's champion, Bart Verwey. Two years later he won the title with 49.6 seconds. In the B championships in 1953 he took first place with 2.03.4 on the 800 m course. Smildiger also took part in sixteen international competitions in his athletics career and was active in the 4 x 400 m national relay (national record 1955).

In 1955 Smildinger joined the trio of guitarist Flip Willemsen as bassist together with pianist Paul Ruys. In the same year he also succeeded bassist Co Atpress in Eric Krans' Dixieland Pipers , but was unable to take part in a tour of Germany in 1955/56 (and was temporarily replaced by Jack Sewing). Together with the trumpeter Jean François he played with the Dutch Wolverines under the direction of Henk Schilp. On August 22, 1956 he made his first recordings for Columbia (again with the Dixieland Pipers ) . In the same year the EP Jubilee followed with the British singer Beryl Bryden as a guest soloist. With the Three Penny Four , a combo by pianist Henk Elkerbout with Flip Willemsen on guitar and Louis Debij on drums, he recorded an EP on November 20, 1960. Then he belonged to Jan Morks ' quintet , with which recordings led to an Edison in the jazz category in 1962 and radio recordings for NCRV and AVRO were made in the following years . After working for The Down Town Jazz Band , he was a bassist with the Dutch Swing College Band from 1967 to 1970 , with whom he toured internationally (also in the GDR and Singapore) and can be heard on several albums. He also recorded albums with studio groups such as the Cheesetown Jazz Band , the Dutch Dixie Devils and the By Dixie All Stars (or Kansas City Stompers ).

Between 1971 and 1975 he performed regularly with his own Chris Smildiger swing combo at the Jazz Club in The Hague, but also with the swing combo Tonny Nüsser . He also worked with the Reunion Jazzband (1975-1993), the New Orleans Syncopators , the Harbor Jazzband and the Stork Town Dixie Kids . For Ted Easton, he worked on recordings with Cab Kaye , Buddy Tate , Harry Edison , Milt Buckner and Bertice Reading . He also performed with the French Globetrotters , the Swedish Jörgen Gottlieb Quintet and the Tremble Kids and was a companion for Toots Thielemans .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ historie van de Nederlandse baanrecords

personal data
SURNAME	Smildiger, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Smildiger, Christiaan Henderik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch athlete and jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH	March 2, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	The hague
DATE OF DEATH	October 21, 2010
Place of death	The hague

[1] storie van de Nederlandse baanrecords