Louis van Dijk “Moonlight In Vermont”

Description

Louis van Dijk was born Arnold Ludwig van Dijk on November 27, 1941, in Amsterdam.
He passed away on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Laren.

Inspired by the playing of the church organist Piet van Egmond, Louis took piano lessons. After finishing high school, he studied piano and organ at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where his teachers were Jaap Callenbach and Simon C. Jansen.

He was inspired by the work of the Modern Jazz Quartet and jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans. He founded his first trio and won first prize at the Loosdrecht Jazz Competition in 1961. This was the beginning of Louis’ versatile career.

Together with bassist Jacques Schols, drummer John Engels, and vibraphonist Carl Schulze, he recorded his first jazz album, “Louis van Dyke Trio/Quartet,” on CBS in 1964 under the auspices of director John Vis. He accompanied various artists—alone or with his regular “Trio Louis van Dijk”—not only in the Netherlands.

Over the years, he performed with many excellent jazz musicians from Poland and abroad. He played with Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, Mark Murphy, Frank Rosolino, and Jean “Toots” Thielemans. Together with classical singer Elly Ameling, he caused a stir in America by releasing two LPs with songs by, among others: Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter.

With singers Madeline Bell, Ann Burton, and Rita Reys, singer-songwriter and pianist Jules de Corte, violinist and singer (daughter) Selma van Dijk, pianists Pim Jacobs, and Daniël Wayenberg, comedians Jenny Arean, Jasperina de Jong, and Conny Stuart, he gave concerts all over the Netherlands.

The ‘Ann Burton with the Louis Van Dyke Trio – Blue Burton’, released in 1967, was a massive success in Japan. When doing 3 concerts in Japan in 2007 some people showed up crying because they finally saw Louis in real life for the first time.

He also frequently performed with flautists Thijs van Leer (from the band Focus), Chris Hinze and The Rosenberg Trio. The ‘Louis Van Dyke – Plays Lennon-McCartney’ album from 1970 could be found on turntables in just about every home in Holland.

For this project Louis improvised on Beatles music in a tiny church in the countryside for a full night, assuring that no noise from traffic would ruin the recordings.

After the year 2000 Louis released several albums and ‘Chez Louis’ a live DVD – recorded in a French castle – on the Baileo Music Productions label.
The ‘Moonlight In Vermont’ album was also recorded in a (sound proof) church in Holland, now in daytime.
All compositions were played only once, every recording was the first take.
One of Louis’ favourite sayings: ‘The music notes automatically flow into a funnel on your head. You just have to pass them on.’

More at: https://polvinyl.pl/en/projects/goldenblackbaileojazz/moonlight/

PL: https://polvinyl.pl/projekty/goldenblackbaileojazzpl/moonlightpl/