Buma Boy Edgar Prize 2016 for bass player and improvisational artist Wilbert de Joode

The Buma Boy Edgar Prize, the most important award for jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands, has been awarded to the bass player and improvisational artist Wilbert de Joode. Wilbert de Joode is a lecturer at the ArtEZ School of Music.

One part of the prize is a concert scheduled for 7 December 2016 in the Bimhuis, to be programmed by De Joode himself. On that occasion, the prize, consisting of €12,500 and a sculpture by Jan Wolkers, will be presented. VPRO will be reporting on the evening on NPO Soul & Jazz and on www.vrijegeluiden.nl.

Double bass player Wilbert de Joode is known as one of the great specialists in collective improvisation and 'instant composing', creating music on the spot which has never been heard before. Having taught himself to play the instrument, he is notable for his imagination, lack of inhibition and huge musical vocabulary. He has developed a sound on the double bass which is very much his own, inter alia by using gut strings. De Joode is a heavyweight, a free spirit who always continues to look for new things, takes risks and can start from 'nothing', without letting his ego dominate. These qualities make him a much sought-after musician and composer.

De Joode plays the bass in well-known Dutch improv groups such as the Ab Baars Trio, the Eric Boeren Quartet, Bik Bent Braam, Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher and the ensembles of Ig Henneman. He also plays with prominent foreign musicians including Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, William Parker, Ken Vandermark and Alexander von Schlippenbach. Apart from being a performing musician, Wilbert de Joode is a co-founder and member of the artistic committee of the DOEK foundation: a collective of leading Dutch improvisational artists and a national/international platform for improvisational music. Alongside his collaborations with musicians, De Joode has also worked with dancers and visual artists, including the American dancer Michael Schumacher.

The prize and its history

The Buma Boy Edgar Prize is awarded to a musician who has made an outstanding creative contribution towards the revival of Dutch jazz and improvised music over a long period of time. The award ceremony and the associated concert evening are organised by the Boy Edgar Prize Foundation in collaboration with the Bimhuis.

The prize was initiated in 1963 under the name Wessel Ilcken Prize and was renamed the Boy Edgar Prize in 1980. From 1992, the prize continued as the VPRO Boy Edgar Prize. Since 2014, the prize has been known as the Buma Boy Edgar Prize. Recent winners include Yuri Honing (2012), Oene van Geel (2013), Jeroen van Vliet (2014) and Tineke Postma (2015).