Yuri Honing

photo: Joost van den Broek

Yuri Honing (born July 6, 1965 in Hilversum ) is a Dutch jazz saxophonist (tenor, soprano) and composer.

Live and act

Honing began playing the piano at the age of 5, switched to the alto saxophone at the age of 12 and to the tenor saxophone at 18. His first teacher was Henny Kluwers (from the "Skymasters"). He studied at the Hilversum Conservatory with Herman Schoonderwalt and Ferdinand Povel and with the pianists Rob Madna and Henk Elkerbout. For over 15 years (2007) he has been playing in a trio with bassist Tony Overwater and drummer Joost Lijbaart as well as in the "Yuri Honing Group", a quintet with his trio partners, Bart Fermie and the German guitarist Frank Möbus . His debut album (with his trio) was released in 1992 ("A Matter of Conviction"). In his album "Star Tracks" (1996) he consistently used pop songs, for example by Abba , Cyndi Lauper and Björk, as the basis for jazz improvisations (on the album alongside his own compositions and classics such as Body and Soul ), which was his breakthrough in the mid-1990s helped him and brought him attention especially in Great Britain.

In 1998 the trio album "Sequel" followed, which already shows the first Arabic influences. With his group "The Orient Express", founded in 2001 (his trio and Arab musicians like the singer Rima Khcheich), he built bridges to Arab music after a tour in the Middle East. He also worked with Misha Mengelberg (“Playing” in the duo 1998, “Lively” 2000 with the cellist Ernst Reijseger ), with Lydia van Dam , with Paul Bley , Gary Peacock and Paul Motian (“Seven” 2001, the Edison Jazz Award won). In 2002 he released the album "Orient Express" with Bassem Hawar and recorded the ballad album "Memory Lane". In 2003 he played with Pat Metheny at the North Sea Jazz Festival . In 2005 the album "Symphonic" was released with the Metropole Orkest under Vince Mendoza . With his band “Wired Paradise” (Lijbaart, Overwater, Möbus and the rock guitarist Paul Jan Bakker) he released “Temptation” in 2006. In 2007 he recorded Franz Schubert's “Winterreise” with pianist Nora Mulder , with the saxophone taking over the vocal part. This was his first classical music recording.

In an interview in 2005, he characterized his playing as both passionate and melancholy.

Yuri is the younger brother of the musicologist Henkjan Honing (* 1959), head of the laboratory for cognitive musicology at the University of Amsterdam. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Boy Edgar Prize .

Discographic notes

• 1995 - Gagarin (A Records)
• 1996 - Star Tracks (Jazz in Motion)
• 2001 - Seven (Challenge) with Bley, Peacock, Motian
• 2007 - Winter trip Yuri Honing, Nora Mulder & Misha Mengelberg
• 2016 - Desire
• 2020 - Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Bluebeard (Challenge)

Web links

• Homepage
• Interview at Jazzdimensions 2005