Eric Vloeimans is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 jazz trumpeter.

Vloeimans initially studied classical music at the Rotterdam Academy of Music. He got interested in jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 after meeting musicians from that department and switched - graduating with distinction in 1988 and continuing his studies in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, studying with Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

 on the trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 gaining experience playing in the big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

s of Frank Foster

Frank Foster (musician)

Frank Foster was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.-Biography:...

 and Mercer Ellington

Mercer Ellington

Mercer Kennedy Ellington was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger.Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of famous composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington...

.

He practises classical studies to keep his technique up to scratch; enabling him to shape his improvisation

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

al ideas; putting classical music at the service of jazz. Vloeimans has flavored his performance on the trumpet by using electronics special effects.

Besides being active with major Dutch jazz figures (including pianist

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 Michiel Borstlap

Michiel Borstlap

Michiel Borstlap is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Borstlap started playing piano at the age of 5 years....

 and cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 Ernst Reijseger

Ernst Reijseger

ERNST REIJSEGER Cellist and composer Ernst Reijseger plays the cello from the age of seven and began as a performing cellist and improviser in 1969. From that time on he developed his own musical vocabulary...

) since 1989, Vloeimans has been involved in numerous international projects, most notably in his recording with US drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Joey Baron

Joey Baron

Joey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...

, bassist

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 Marc Johnson and pianist

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 John Taylor

John Taylor (jazz)

John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

, resulting in an Edison award for the album Bitches and Fairy Tales in 1999. Other collaborations include those with French/Vietnamese guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê

Nguyên Lê is a French jazz musician and composer of Vietnamese ancestry. His main instrument is guitar, and he also plays electric bass guitar and guitar synthesizer....

, German clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann

Theo Jörgensmann

Theodor Franz Jörgensmann is a jazz and free-improvising Basset clarinet player and composer. He has been a professional musician since 1975.-Activities:...

, Swedish bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson

Lars Danielsson

Lars Danielsson is a Swedish jazz bassist, composer and record producer.-Biography:Lars Danielsson was educated at the Music Conservatory in Gothenburg. He plays double bass, electric bass and cello...

 and Finnish drummer/percussionist Markku Ounaskari, US bassist Jimmy Haslip

Jimmy Haslip

Jimmy Haslip is an American electric bass player and record producer best known as a founding and current member of the pioneering fusion group Yellowjackets...

, as well as projects with Norwegian composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Erik Lars Gudim and nu jazz

Nu jazz

Nu jazz is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, soul, electronic dance music, and free improvisation...

 pioneer Bugge Wesseltoft

Bugge Wesseltoft

Jens Christian Bugge Wesseltoft is a Norwegian jazz musician, pianist, composer and producer. He has his own label named Jazzland Records. In the 1990s, Bugge has made a transition from Nordic jazz traditions exemplified by the ECM record label to a style sometimes referred to as "future jazz" or...

.

In 2003 he received the most prestigious Dutch jazz award, the VPRO/Boy Edgar Award

VPRO/Boy Edgar Award

The VPRO/Boy Edgar Award, is an annual award given to a Dutch jazz musician, composer, or bandleader. The individual must have made significant contributions to the Dutch jazz scene over a significant period of time. The award is a sculpture by Dutch fine artist Jan Wolkers, and a cash prize of...

. Two recent albums have won him the highest awards for music in the Netherlands; the Edison Award. These include Summersault, in 2006, and Gatecrashin in 2007.

According to JazzTimes

JazzTimes

JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...

 magazine, "Vloeimans plays crisp and self-assured, embodying the articulate melodism of Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...

 plus many shades of Miles, without being imitative".

Discography

• No Realistics (1992)
• First Floor (1994)
• Bestiarium (1996)
• Bitches And Fairy Tales (1998)
• Umai (2000)
• Brutto Gusto (2002)
• VoizNoiz 3
• Hidden History
• Boompetit (2004)
• Summersault (2006)
• Gatecrashin' (2007)
• Hyper (2008)
• Heavensabove! (2009)
• Live at Yoshi's
  Live at Yoshi's
  Live at Yoshi's is a 1998 live album by Dee Dee Bridgewater, recorded at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, California.Bridgewater sings several songs from her last album Dear Ella, a tribute to the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, who had died a year previously, and this live album was recorded on what...
  
   (2009)
• Live at the Concertgebouw (2011)

External links

• Personal web site
• Record Company - (Challenge Records International
  Challenge Records (1994)
  A third label Challenge Records International was founded in the Netherlands in 1994 dedicated to recordings of classical music and jazz. On of its subsidiary Retrieval is dedicated to reissues of vintage jazz now out of copyright in Europe, many transferred by remastering engineer John R.T...
  
  )