Nedly Elstak

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Nedly Elstak (born January 3, 1931 in Semarang on Java ; † August 5, 1989 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger and pianist of modern jazz .

Live and act

Born in Java to Surinamese teachers, Elstak grew up in the Netherlands from 1936 on. As a child he played the violin, but switched to the trumpet in 1949. In the 1950s he played in the dance orchestra of the "Ramblers" and in Germany with Gunter Hampel and in the 1960s trumpet in the big band of Boy Edgar . He also played in the 1960s in the “Workshop Kwartet” with Theo Loevendie (from around 1960), with whom he had already played bebop in the 1950s jazz cafe “de Looier” (in the Looiersgracht). The workshop quartet, in which Maarten Altena and Johnny Engels also played, was based in part on Ornette Coleman , whom Elstak had met in Amsterdam in 1965, in addition to the bop . He also played in a quintet with Loevendie, Misha Mengelberg and Altena. His 1968 existing trio with Altena and drummer Martin van Duynhoven recorded the album "The Machine" with the singer Sofie van Lier , which was initially released by ESP-Disk . Elstak is also known in the Netherlands as a composer who wrote primarily for vocal ensembles. In 1983 he had the group "Several Singers" (or "Seven Singers and a Horn") a. a. with the singer (and actress) Astrid Seriese , Willem Breuker and the singers Soesja Citroen , Winanda del Sur , Jette van der Meij and then the larger "Paradise Regained Orchestra" (strings and wind instruments). Otherwise he sometimes played the piano every night in a bingo bar.

In 1983 he won the Boy Edgar Prize .

His central work is the "Paradise Lost and Regained Suite", inspired by the book by John Milton . It was never recorded and published under Elstak's direction, but only in 1995 with the Paradise Regained Orchestra under the direction of Werner Herbers , after a project group of Arjen Gorter , Jaap de Rijke and Kees Stevens had worked towards it. Another result of the project was the CD "Love You So" with recordings by Elstak from the 1960s. Elstak's friend Theo Loevendie brought out the album "Double Eclipse - A Tribute to Nedly Elstak" with his compositions.

Elstak also taught in the 1980s and published a book "Practical Jazz Theory". At times he also ran a jazz club The Machine in Amsterdam's Vondelstraat. The music producer and DJ Paul Elstak is related to him.

Web links

Remarks

  1. Since the first encounter with bebop in a Dixieland club in the 1940s, Gillespie was one of his role models (branded as a "big culprit" in the club mentioned at the time), but with Loevendie he played mostly his own compositions even then. Both met during Elstak's year-long stay in Turkey in 1953.
  2. According to Ditmer Weertman, his compositions and his chromatic playing are more reminiscent of Arnold Schönberg than of jazz