Bands

West Coast Jazz Hour

The West Coast Jazz Hour was born from the Facebook / Youtube shows started by Josh Nelson and Kevin van den Elzen. The WCJH is either a quintet or a 17 piece big band. The WCJH pays hommage to the music of the greatest West Coast jazz musicians such as Bill Holman, Quincy Jones, Terry Gibbs, Gerald Wilson, Henry Mancini, Billy May, Bob Florence and many more. Some of the musicians who are a part of the WCJH are Chuck Berghofer, Gene Cipriano, Sal Lozano, Alex Iles, Alan Kaplan, Larry Koonse and more.

VDE Big Band

The VDE Big Band is comprised of some of the finest jazz and studio musicians in Los Angeles. The band is mostly active in the Los Angeles area. The band plays compositions from members of the band, but also compositions from LA based composers. Besides playing originals, the band hosts tribute concerts at the Blue Whale with featured soloists.

Line-up:

Reeds: Kim Richmond, Kyle Myers, Brian Clancy, Bob Sheppard, Tim McKay

Trombones: Ido Meshulam, Alex Iles, Ivan Malespin, Juliane Gralle

Trumpets: Dave Richards, Nathan Johnson, Michael Campagna, Brian Swartz

Guitar: Shane Savala, Piano: Adam Hersh, Bass: Edwin Livingston / Max Kraus, Vibes: Chase Jackson

The Dutch Concert Big Band

The Dutch Concert Big Band is a professional big band founded by drummer Kevin van den Elzen. The band consists of some the finest young jazz musicians in the Netherlands. The concept of the Dutch Concert Big Band is to play less known or “almost forgotten” repertoire by the finest jazz artists in the world. Besides that, the bands goal is to play music from young, up-and-coming composers. The band was the house orchestra of the Laren Jazz Festival for 4 years. Here they accompanied featured soloists. The band has played at the Grachtenfestival and the Amsterdam Jazz Festival. The DCBB has played several times in the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and in the Concertgebouw. They played with a.o. Paquito d’Rivera, Ack van Rooyen, Theo Loevendie, Fay Claassen, Shirma Rouse and Jan Menu.

The first project of the DCBB is a tribute to Dutch Big Band Composers. The band has recorded a cd with original compositions written by the greatest big band composers from the Netherlands. The pieces are written by: Jerry van Rooyen, Rob Pronk, Frans Elsen, Rob Madna, Henk Meutgeert, Johan Plomp, Rik Elings, Jan Wessels and Henk Huizinga.

Maarten Hogenhuis (alto), Jasper Blom (tenor) and Rik Mol (trumpet) are featured as guest soloists on the cd.

The cd is available on Itunes, Spotify, Amazon and Cd Baby.

For a copy of the cd, send an e-mail to kevin.vandenelzen@gmail.com

The members of the Dutch Concert Big Band

Reeds: Jasper van Damme, Donald Simoen, Joao Driessen, Bernard van Rossum, Jessie Breve

Trombones: Jos van den Heuvel, Peter Keijsers, Matthias Konrad, Bart van Gorp

Trumpets: Ywo Lamonaca, Florian Sperzel, Gidon Nunes Vaz, Anne Marie ten Heggeler

Guitar: Durk Hijma

Piano: Koen Schalkwijk

Double bass: Tobias Nijboer

Drums: Kevin van den Elzen / Felix Schlarmann

The Dutch Concert Big Band at Vrije Geluiden. Copyright Cindy Heijnen

The DCBB with Paquito d’Rivera

Copyright Jurjen Donkers

LAHO Group

The LAHO Group (LA / Holland) was founded by Dutch jazz drummer Kevin van den Elzen. Before and during his studies in LA he continued to expand the roster of musicians that he played with. Most notable are Dick Oatts, Bob Mintzer, Nick Mancini and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. Two years ago he came to Los Angeles for his master studies at the Thornton School of Music at USC, there he met tenor saxophonist Mike Lebrun. Lebrun was a semifinalist in the 2013 Thelonious Monk Competition and is a featured soloist on the 2016 Michael Buble album “Nobody But Me”. Before coming to LA, Van den Elzen met pianist Adam Hersh and bassist Max Kraus through the Keep An Eye Jazz Competition hosted by the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Kraus came to USC to follow his master studies at USC as well. Kraus has been studying with Darek Oles and Vince Mendoza. Since his move to Los Angeles, he has been playing intensively in the LA Jazz scene. Hersh studied at Cal State Northridge with Josh Nelson and has been playing with his own groups around town.
Together, they form a group that performs original music that emphasizes lyricism and melody. The group just finished a tour in the Netherlands in October 2017 with alto saxophonist Ben van Gelder.