Eric Vloeimans

Eric Vloeimans stands out as a prize-winning trumpeter, composer, and producer whose crisp attack and resonant tone have made him perhaps the best-known jazz trumpeter in the Netherlands. Over a lengthy career he has repeatedly stepped beyond conventional genre boundaries, fusing jazz with elements drawn from classical music, pop, folk, and electronica through an extensive palette of effects applied to his instrument. Among his many partnerships with DJs and producers, he has joined forces with Armin van Buuren.

Vloeimans began his formal training in classical music during primary and secondary school before enrolling as a music major at the Rotterdam Academy of Music. Encounters with jazz musicians at the academy sparked his interest, prompting a switch in focus; he completed the program with honors in 1988 and then moved to New York City to study with Donald Byrd while performing in the big bands led by Frank Foster and Mercer Ellington.

Upon returning to the Netherlands he collaborated with numerous Dutch jazz artists such as pianist Michiel Borstlap and cellist Ernst Reijseger, as well as American musicians including drummer Joey Baron and bassist Marc Johnson. He also recorded with the late British pianist John Taylor on the Edison Award-winning album Bitches and Fairy Tales in 1999. Two years later he received a second Boy Edgar Award for the 2001 release Umai, which again featured Taylor alongside drummer Joe La Barbera. Additional honors include a Bird Award in 2002, given for his standing as best jazz trumpeter, and the Gouden Nutcracker in 2011 for Heavensabove in the category of best Dutch jazz album.

While maintaining a steady output of at least one album annually from the 1990s onward—including the widely praised Oliver's Cinema in 2013 and its sequel Oliver's Cinema: Act 2 in 2015—he has engaged in further projects with French/Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê, Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson, Finnish drummer and percussionist Markku Ounaskari, American bassist Jimmy Haslip, and Norwegian pianist and producer Bugge Wesseltoft. Most recently the trumpeter assembled the trio Levanter with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and pianist Jeroen Van Vliet, issuing their self-titled album in early 2018.