Musicians profile
Jesse Van Ruller
guitar
Jesse van Ruller is known to be one of the best contemporary jazz guitarists on the scene today. His unique sound, virtuoso technique and beautiful compositions are praised around the globe.
In 1995 he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Award in Washington . The jury, consisting of Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Pat Martino and Mark Whitfield, was of the opinion that Jesse is one of the most promising talents of his time.
In the same year he graduated summa cum laude from the Hilversum Conservatory, where he studied with Wim Overgaauw. Since then he has collaborated with many of the worlds leading musicians. He was nominated for the Dutch Bird and Edison Awards several times and to date has released 11 albums as a leader or co-leader.
Jesse leads his own trio in which he continues to display his impressive talents as a jazz guitarist as well as a composer. In this classic guitar-bass-drums setting he unerringly combines all chords and melodies on his semi-acoustic jazz guitar; tradition, expertise and innovation un-insistently go hand in hand.
Clemens van der Feen
bass
After some occasional drumming on various items, Clemens (1980) began singing and playing bass in the band of his older brothers (the Feenbrothers) at the age of eleven. Later on, he studied jazz and classical bass at the Conservatories of Amsterdam and Detmold (Germany) and received his Master Degree in both fields with honors.After playing with orchestras like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, his main focus became jazz and improvised music. He lived in New York for a while to take lessons with Ben Street, among others. Returning to the Netherlands, he grew out to be one of the most sought-after bass players around. In 2010 Clemens started the Clemens van der Feen Band, resulting in an album called “High Places” (2011), with as special guest the great Toots Thielemans! The year 2013 saw the birth of yet a new band, the Clemens van der Feen 4tet, and a new album: “14PM” which was called “ one of the highlights of Dutch contemporary jazz…” by Jazzism Magazine. In 2022 he released a singer-songwriter album called ‘Pop into Being’ under the name Clemens Zebulon. The album was reviewed by Music Maker Magazine:
“…megatalent….lovely album…beautiful record with great songs”
Clemens is currently working with Tutu Puoane (SA/BE), the Paul Lay Trio (FR) and the Harmen Fraanje Trio. In 2021, Clemens was invited to play in theBrad Mehldau Quartet at the Transmission-Transition Festival. Clemens has performed with many other great musicians such as the late Toots Thielemans, Jesse van Ruller, Tony Malaby, Pablo Held, Chris Potter, Nelson Veras, Fred Hersch, Becca Stevens, Jorge Rossy, Greg Osby, Marc Copland, Lionel loueke, Jeff Ballard, Ben Monder and Billy Hart. Clemens has been playing all over the world, from jazz clubs in Paris and Tokyo to the Musikverein in Vienna and Carnegie Hall in New York. Clemens plays on a double bass by Daniël Royé from the collection of the NMF.
Wouter Kühne
drums
With professional musicians as parents, Wouter Kühne grew up in a musical environment. Already up at a very young age, he performed with them in different formations, and at the age of 7, he got his first drum lessons from Gerben Wester and René Smit. Because of his father’s passion for Jazz, he came into contact with old Jazz recordings and quickly developed a great interest in this music. This led to his being admitted to the Junior Jazz College at the age of 13, part of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he received lessons from Gerhard Jeltes. In addition, he started playing in various Big Bands under the direction of Peter Guidi, and he made it at the age of 16 his debut at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
In 2014 he started his bachelor’s at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where he was taught by Marcel Serierse, Martijn Vink, Lucas van Merwijk and Haye Jellema. In the same period he also had lessons and masterclasses from drummers like Peter Erskine, Willie Jones III, John Riley, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Mackrel, and Billy Hart, and he got the chance to share the stage with musicians like Dick Oatts, Terrel Stafford, Aaron Parks, Joe Cohn, Bob Mintzer, Jason Marsalis, Benjamin Herman, Jasper Blom, Simon Rigter, Peter Beets, Henk Meutgeert, Jesse van Ruller, Martijn van Iterson, Bart van Lier, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Ben van Gelder, Joris Roelofs, Reinier Baas and Maarten Hogenhuis.
In 2015 and 2017, he went to Senegal to take traditional percussion instrument Sabar lessons. He followed these lessons with Maguette Gueye.
In 2017 he won the Sena Performers “Gouden Slifje”, a prize for the most promising young jazz drummer of the moment, set up by drummer Joost Patocka. In 2018 he graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In 2019 he started his Master’s study in Jazz Drum Set at Manhattan School Of Music in New York. There he was taught by Kendrick Scott, John Riley, Marc Carey and Phil Markowitz, among others.
Live information
Jesse Van Ruller Trio
Jazz Live at Time & Style
19 March 2023
From 16:00 until 17:30
Free entrance
Time & Style Amsterdam
Marnixstraat 148, 1016 TE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)20 210 3176
Open: 11:00 – 19:00 (Tue – Sat)
11:00 – 18:00 (Sun)