Chris Hinze

Born on 30 June 1938 in Hilversum, the Netherlands, Christiaan Herbert Hinze grew up with a father who worked as a conductor. As a youngster he took up both piano and flute. Formal training on the flute followed at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, after which he pursued studies in arranging at Berklee College Of Music in the USA. At the Montreux International Jazz Festival in 1970 he received the award for best soloist, and the next year he assembled the jazz fusion ensemble the Combination. He established the independent label Keytone and frequently produced sessions for fellow artists. Although he relocated to New York in 1976, the closing years of the decade found him traveling across Europe, first with the ensemble Chris Hinze And Friends and later as a duo alongside guitarist Sigi Schwab. The Beethoven Award of the City of Bonn went to him in 1972 for the suite Live Music Now. Symphonic compositions continued to occupy his attention, while he also directed his group through jazz interpretations of Baroque composers. An album consisting solely of flute improvisations was captured inside India’s Ellora Caves in 1979; the following year he completed a reggae project with Peter Tosh. African and Indian players have since become regular members of the Combination.