Wolter Wierbos

Biography | Biografie

Trombone

Wolter Wierbos is considered one of the world’s leading trombone players. He has played throughout Europe, Canada, USA and Asia. Wierbos has many awards to his name, including the Podiumprijs for Jazz and Improvised music and the most important Dutch jazz award, the VPRO Boy Edgar Prize.
Like many Dutch brass players Wierbos started out in a ‘fanfare’ (brass band), switching from trumpet to trombone when he was 17. “It looked good, and the trombones walk in front....” His interests range from precise chamber jazz to throbbing post punk and contemporary composed and improvised music. Described as “a phenomenon, both a humorous importer of every style into his template-free, fat-backed sound, and a tireless spy in the house of brass”, he is equally at home using the classic trombone vocabulary or enthusiastically giving a round-trip tour of his horn, from buzzing mute mutations and grizzly blurts to purring multiphonics. He is also “a very good instant composer, good at keeping it moving and not taking it too seriously”.

Since 1979 he has played with numerous music ensembles: Cumulus (with Ab Baars and Harry de Wit), JC Tans & Rockets, Theo Loevendie Quintet, Guus Janssen Septet, Loos (Peter van Bergen), Maarten Altena Ensemble and Podiumtrio. He led his own band, Celebration of Difference, and has been involved in theater, dance, television and film projects. He has been invited to play with the EX, Sonic Youth, Gruppo Sportivo and the Nieuw Ensemble (led by Ed Spanjaard). He has also played with Henry Threadgill, The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra (led by Alexander von Schlippenbach), the European Big Band (led by Cecil Taylor), the John Carter Project, Mingus Big Band (Epitaph, directed by Gunther Schuller).

He is currently active with Misha Mengelberg’s ICP (Downbeat Poll winner 2002, Talent Deserving Wider Recognition), Gerry Hemingway Quintet, Franky Douglas’ Sunchild, Bik Bent Braam, Albrecht Maurer Trio Works, Nocando, Carl Ludwig Hübsch’s Longrun Development of the Universe, Frank Gratkowski Quartet, Available Jelly and Sean Bergin’s MOB

Wierbos also maintains a solo career. He has a running project under the name Wollo’s World, where he brings together different artistic combinations, ranging from duos with tap-dancer Marije Nie and bassist Wilbert de Joode to a quartet with Misha Mengelberg, Mats Gustafsson and Wilbert de Joode. In the future Wollos’ World hopes to feature such interesting musicians as Simon Nabatov, Hamid Drake and Jim Black.

Wolter Wierbos can be heard on more than 100 CD’s and LP’s. He has released two solo CDs: X Caliber (ICP 032, 1995), “a round-trip tour of his horn, from buzzing mute mutations, grizzly blurts and purring multiphonics to radiant melodies”, and Wierbos (DATA 824), a reissue of his 1982 solo LP with an additional track.

  Wolter Wierbos - solo | track 12 Reeds (click button for audio)

Wolter Wierbos - Trombone

Wolter Wierbos wordt beschouwd als een van de meest vooraanstaande trombonisten in de wereld. Hij speelde in Europa, Canada, Verenigde Staten en Azië. Wierbos kreeg vele prijzen toegekend, waaronder de Podiumprijs voor Jazz en Improvisatiemuziek (1983) en de belangrijkste Nederlandse jazzprijs, de VPRO Boy Edgar Prijs (1995). Zoals vele Nederlandse koperspelers begon hij in een fanfare, op zijn zeventiende ruilde hij de trompet voor de trombone: “Het zag er goed uit en de trombones lopen meestal vooraan....” Zijn interesse reikt van precieze kamerjazz, over bonkende postpunk tot hedendaagse gecomponeerde en geïmproviseerde muziek. Sedert 1979 speelde hij met talrijke muziekensembles: Cumulus (met Ab Baars en Harry de Wit), JC Tans & Rockets, Theo Loevendie Quintet, Harry Miller Quintet, Guus Janssen Septet, Loos (Peter van Bergen), Maarten Altena Ensemble en Podiumtrio (met Paul van Kemenade, Jan Kuiper).
Wierbos was ook betrokken in diverse theater-, dans-, televisie- en filmprojecten.
Groepen als The Ex, Sonic Youth, Gruppo Sportivo, Jazz Orchestra of het Concertgebouw en het Nieuw Ensemble, nodigden hem uit om met hen te spelen.
Tevens concerteerde Wierbos met The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra olv Alexander von Schlippenbach, European Big Band olv Cecil Taylor, John Carter Project, Mingus Big Band olv Günther Schuller.
Momenteel is hij actief in het ICP-Orchestra van Misha Mengelberg, Available Jelly, Sean Bergin's MOB, Gerry Hemingway Quintet, Sunchild van Franky Douglas, Bik Bent Braam, Albrecht Maurer Trio Works, Longrun Development of the Universe van Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Frank Gratkowski Quartet en Double Quartet.
Wolter Wierbos houdt er ook een solocarrière op na, en het allernieuwste project heet Wollo's World. Hierin worden verschillende artistieke en muzikale combinaties samengebracht. Musici als Simon Nabatov, Mats Gustafsson, Hamid Drake, Steve Beresford en Jim Black, en Marije Nie (tapdans) hebben al deelgenomen.
Ook geeft hij clinics, masterclasses en workshops improvisatie, o.a. aan de Messiaen Academie (Arnhem), Vancouver Jazzfestival, Université de Montréal, Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, NY), Palermo, Art School of Chicago.

Quotes

“He compacts the horn’s history with no presumption and, overall, shows a magnetic sense of levity while demonstrating his own sheer brilliance.”
Coda Magazine: November/December 1998

“..a total player, with outrageous facility and an inquiring mind......”
John Corbett: Down Beat, September 1998

“..the great, subtle, razor-eared, sometimes comic trombonist....He can nail difficult written music, pitch-perfect, and also play a quarter tone off, with greasy vibrato like an inspired rural brass-band amateur. “
Kevin Whitehead: Coda, May/June 1990

“There isn’t much Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos can’t do..........He speaks the classic trombone vocabulary as naturally as he does Dutch, mixing throaty growls, fat smears, elegant slinkiness, and impeccable wah-wahs like some long-lost Ellington sideman, but he’s just as adept when he gets abstract.”
Peter Margasak: Chicago Reader

“He can be a capricious sound researcher – listen to I Can’t Dance – but can also play with emotional lyricism. The additional track ‘dOeK’, recorded twenty years later, displays the strongly developed sense of form of a fully mature artist.”
Jacob Haagsma: review Wierbos

Complete Discography