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Willem (Wim) Wigt, (Utrecht, October 13, 1944) is a Dutch artist manager, promoter, producer and founder of the record label Timeless Records.
Born in Utrecht in 1944, Wigt went on to study non-western sociology at the Landbouwuniversiteit in Wageningen during the early 1970s. As member of the student union he began organising jazz concerts in the local theatre and around town. The invited mostly American musicians, requested Wigt to arrange more performances. With the help of fellow students, among them his later wife Ria Wigt, he started to develop small tours throughout the Netherlands and abroad. In 1974 Wigt decided to quit his studies and fully focus on his now thriving music business. In the years that followed, Wigt organised countless European tours with, to name a few, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, Toots Thielemans, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders, Machito, Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson. Next to he would on occasion organise events with Dionne Warwick, Chuck Berry, The Hollies, Alan Parsons, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Vaughan, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, George Benson, Nina Simone, André Rieu and many others.
As a result, Wigt became a prominent figure and pioneer on the international jazz scene. Very often introducing well known American jazz musicians for the first time in different European countries. Even extending tours as far as behind the then iron curtain, the Balkan peninsula, South Africa, Oceania and Japan. In 1981 he aided in the founding the renowned jazz club New Morning in Paris. Wigt was highly influential in the programming of the North Sea Jazz Festival during their early years. Due to a disagreement with festival director Paul Acket, Wigt started the Camel Jazz Festival in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 1984, to counterpart the well known jazz festival (at that time) in The Hague. In 1988 Wigt was manager of Chet Baker during the time of his tragic death in Amsterdam. [1] [2] Since the 1990s Wigt started to, next to the jazz and blues music, also book other live entertainment such as musicals, dance and circus shows. Prominent artists such as ex-Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel and tradjazz legend Chris Barber entrust Wigt for years to look after the business side of their European tours. [3]
In 1975, Wigt and his wife Ria Wigt, established the record label Timeless Records. The very first release on the label was Eastern Rebellion by Cedar Walton. It is seen by many international jazz experts as one of the best bebop jazz records of the 1970s. In 1983, the Timeless release of Machito and his Salsa Big Band, with Wigt as producer, won a Grammy Award in the category Best Latin Recording. [4] The current catalogue holds more than 850 releases, including several from Chet Baker, Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Tommy Flanagan, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and the Dutch Swing College Band. In 1991 Wigt starts, together with trombone player Chris Barber, the series Chris Barber Collection (also called Timeless Historical or abbreviated CBC), which are remastered reissues of recordings of Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Coleman Hawkins, Ethel Waters, Django Reinhardt, Hoagy Carmichael, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke and others. [5] [6] In 1998 Wigt buys Limetree Records which includes recordings of Toots Thielemans, Ben Webster, Monty Alexander and Bill Evans.
Jymie Merritt was an American jazz double-bassist, electric-bass and bass guitar pioneer, band leader and composer. Merritt was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers group from 1957 until 1962. The same year he left Blakey's band, Merritt formed his own group, The Forerunners, which he led sporadically until his death in 2020. Merritt also worked as a sideman for blues and jazz musicians such as Bull Moose Jackson, B.B. King, Chet Baker, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, and Lee Morgan.
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, known professionally as Toots Thielemans, was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz". He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.
Philip Catherine is a Belgian jazz guitarist.
Pierre Michelot was a French jazz double bass player and arranger.
Curtis DuBois Fuller was an American jazz trombonist. He was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributed to many classic jazz recordings.
Machito was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. He was raised in Havana with the singer Graciela, his foster sister.
The Afro-Cubans were a Latin jazz band founded by Machito in 1940; often billed as Machito and his Afro-Cubans. Their musical director was Mario Bauzá, Machito's brother-in-law.
Prudencio Mario Bauzá Cárdenas was an Afro-Cuban jazz, and jazz musician. He was among the first to introduce Cuban music to the United States by bringing Cuban musical styles to the New York City jazz scene. While Cuban bands had had popular jazz tunes in their repertoire for years, Bauzá's composition "Tangá" was the first piece to blend jazz harmony and arranging technique, with jazz soloists and Afro-Cuban rhythms. It is considered the first true Afro-Cuban jazz tune.
The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village, New York. Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 160 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structure by architect Ernest Flagg was known at the time as Mills House No. 1 and served as a flophouse for transient men. In its heyday, the Village Gate also included an upper-story performance space, known as the Top of the Gate.
Lonnie Plaxico is an American jazz double bassist.
Hein van de Geyn is a jazz double bassist, composer and band leader from the Netherlands. Van de Geyn also teaches double bass and music.
Dale Barlow is a jazz saxophonist, flute player and composer. He has a Masters of Music degree begun at City College New York under Ron Carter and completed at ANU Canberra. He has received ARIA Awards, Album of the Year/ Jazz performer of the year/ International Artist of the Year/ Bicentennial Artist of the Year, four Mo Awards and grants.
San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual three-week music festival produced by SFJAZZ, a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education.
Sonet Records was a jazz, pop and rock record label operating as an imprint of Universal Music Sweden. It was founded in Sweden in 1956.
James Williams was an American jazz pianist.
Digital at Montreux, 1980 is a live album by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie with Toots Thielemans and Bernard Purdie recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1980 and released on the Pablo label.
Eric Ineke is a Dutch jazz drummer who started his career in the 1960s. After a few years of lessons of John Engels, he gained his first experience as jazzdrummer with singer Henny Vonk and tenorsaxophonist Ferdinand Povel. Thanks to Pim Jacobs, Ruud Jacobs, Wim Overgaauw, Rita Reys and Piet Noordijk, Eric became well known in the jazz scene. In 1969 he made his first record with tenor saxophonist Ferdinand Povel and through the years he has played with the Rob Agerbeek Quintet and trio, the Rein de Graaff/Dick Vennik Quartet, the Ben van den Dungen/Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet and the Piet Noordijk Quartet. During his career he has also played with numerous international, mainly American soloists like Hank Mobley, Phil Woods, Lucky Thompson, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Shirley Horn, Dizzy Gillespie, Al Cohn, Grant Stewart, Jimmy Raney, Barry Harris, Eric Alexander and Dave Liebman, recorded numerous CD's and appeared at many national and international jazz festivals. For more than 40 years he has been the drummer of the Rein de Graaff Trio and since 2006 has led the Eric Ineke JazzXpress, a quintet in the hard-bop tradition. With this quintet, Ineke got invited in 2011 by the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City with jazz singer Deborah Brown where they did a few performances, including one on Kansas Public Radio and a CD recording produced by Bobby Watson. In October 2016, the JazzXpress presented its latest album Dexternity on the Dutch television in "Vrije Geluiden" of the VPRO.
Christopher Columbus is an American jazz song composed by Chu Berry with lyrics by Andy Razaf. Pianist Fats Waller turned the tune into a 1936 novelty hit which was subsequently recorded by numerous other artists and became a jazz standard. Jimmy Mundy wrote the lead into a medley with "Sing, Sing, Sing" for Benny Goodman.
John Lee is an American bassist, Grammy winning record producer and audio engineer.
I/We Had a Ball is an album consisting of jazz versions of songs from Jack Lawrence and Stan Freeman's musical I Had a Ball performed by Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones and Chet Baker which was released by Limelight in 1965.