Jeroen Pek Upcycle

With this brand new project jazz flautist Jeroen Pek UPcycles (his) musical past, present and future into an eclectic adventure. The creative explosion in the 1970’s as well as the absurdistic aspects of our civilization are clear sources of inspiration for the repertoire he wrote for this group. The line-up stems from Pek’s UPcycle idea. It represents different generations of musicians – in their twenties to sixties – each with a solid international track record and a diversity of musical backgrounds. He plays for almost two decades with Onno Witte and Stormvogel in many different mutual projects. Bass player David de Marez Oyens was part of his jazz-rock project PitchWhiteStorm. The Benjamin of this band is his son Guy Pek with whom he workes together for the first time.

Because of his power play, virtuosity, large pallet of dynamics and a completely unique sound, Jeroen Pek is internationally regarded as one of today’s leading jazz flautists. With his stylistically diverse projects, including the multi-national ethnic-jazz group 6 Spoons-1 Kitchen, Jeroen Pek Quartet, Jeroen Pek Band and PitchWhiteStorm- in Europe, North Africa and the USA, he has produced a solid list of CD’s. Since 2014 Jeroen has been touring with Pitch Plot 4 -feat. US bass player James Cammack (Ahmad Jamal), German pianist Christian Pabst and Onno Witte- with whom he produced the live CD “Big Eyebrow” and the EP “It Happens Along The Way” (Zennez Rec.).

More recent, the Jeroen Pek European Quartet (with French heroes guitarist Serge Lazarevitch and bassist Jean-Luc Lehr), Pek, Doepke, Teepe & Hart Jr. (NL/USA/D) and the Two Moon’s Project with Finnish/German keyboardist Sid Hille. As side man he played with Boy Edgar Prize winner ’18, Jasper van ’t Hof, Nueva Manteca, Pierre Courbois, Onno Witte’s Wildcard, Bohemian Groove Orchestra, Rob van den Broeck, Ramon Valle, Tony Roe, Oene van Geel, Oleg Fateev, Simone Sou, the Egyptian keyboardist player Fathy Salama, bassist Ahmed Nazmi, Tunesian Ud/guitar player Nabil Khemir and the Catalan bassist Giulia Valle.
Jeroen has been nominated twice for the composition prize of the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Washington D.C. (US).

Keyboardist/composer/poet/writer/designer is a selection of the arsenal of the homo universalis Stormvogel. As pianist/keyboardis he playes in practicaly every style direction in jazz. Most striking personal project is Alter Ego Jazzbarock Consort. Special guest artists like Rob van den Broeck, Tineke Postma, Chander Sardjoe, Wiro Mahieu and Wieke Garcia joined in. Stormvogel is also in great demand as a sideman with acts from (inter)national progjazz and worldfusion scene, including Wildcard (Onno Witte), PitchWhiteStorm (Jeroen Pek) Wieke Garcia Group and Music Machine (Lucas van Merwijk ft. Theodosii Spassov).

He also initiated the Bohemian Groove Orchestra, with international guest soloists like Tommy Smith (UK), Niladri Kumar (India), Roman Stolyar (Russia) and Joseph Bowie (US). With David de Marez Oyens, Arno van Nieuwenhuize, Ruud Breuls, Leo Janssen, Peter Tiehuis (leading members of the Metropole Orchestra) he forms the fusion ensemble Global Alternative Energy Attack. Stormvogel is part of Naked Ears (world funk feat. Joe Bowie and Minyeshu), Platypus (Chamber Jazz, feat. Bart van Lier and Marc Scholten) and the band of the Tunisian Ud-virtuoso Nabil Khemir. Furthermore he played with an endless list of musicians including Eef Albers, Oene van Geel, Ben van den Dungen and Benjamin Herman.

Son of musicians, (his mother Thera was a famous composer in the realm of Electronic Vintage Music), David de Marez Oyens started lessons in hobo, piano, ending up with double bass and bass guitar. He studied jazz and composition at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Today he is teaching at the very same conservatory. With Rafael Reina and Jos Zwaanenburg, David de Marez Oyens is teaching at the programme ‘Contemporary Music through Non-Western Techniques’. For many years he is member of the band of guitar legend Jan Akkerman.

As (educating) bassplayer David toured in Europe, Africa and North America, during which he shared the stage with artist like Joe Lovano, Philipe Catherine, Hein van der Geyn, Serge Lazarevitch, Jim McNeely, Billy Hart, Radio Symphonie Orkest, Radio Kamer Orkest, Metropole Orkest, Nippy Noya, Wim Overgaauw, Michel Petrucciani, Boi Akih, Rob Madna, Michiel Borstlap, Bart van Lier, Denise Jannah, Batida, Nueva Manteca, Estrella Acosta, Leonardo Amuedo, Marc Bischoff, Eef Albers, Thijs van Leer, Erik Vaarzon Morel, Didier Lockwood, Randy Crawford, Mike Mainieri and Tineke Postma. Like Jeroen Pek, Stormvogel and Onno Witte, David was part of jazz-rock projects such as PitchWhiteStorm and Bohemian Groove Orchestra.

Drummer/multi-instrumentalist Onno Witte is known as a musical omnivore with a solid track record. He toured in Europe, North- and South America and Africa with a wide range of bands like the batucada group Medicamento, Randal Corsen’s Cross Curents, jazz-rock bands like PitchWhiteStorm and Alter Ego, acoustic jazz quartet like his own WW IV, Jeroen Pek European Quartet (feat. Serge Lazerevitch and bassist Jean-Luc Lehr) and the Jeroen Pek Quartet, ethnic jazz with 6 Spoons, 1 Kitchen.

Onno Witte is also part of Pitch Plot 4 (feat. James Cammack). His most personal project, Wildcard, with guest players like the German saxophonist Volker Winck is one of the striking high-lights in his career. He also played as a side-man with an impressive list of musicians including Rob van den Broeck, Wiro Mahieu, Anton Goudsmit, Oene van Geel, Jasper van ’t Hof, Oleg Fateev, Simone Sou and Nabil Khemir.

Drummer, composer and bandleader Guy Pek graduated at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2015 at the age of twenty. Already in his early teens Guy toured intensively in the Dutch rock club/festival circuit with the band Project D. Bands like The Macaws, Inertia Reel and RazzMatazz followed. With the group Nachtschade he toured for several years intensively in the Netherlands, Belgium and France and released a very well received CD and a vinyl record. The national media didn’t fail to notice (a.o. DWDD). International artists also got him in their sights. As a side man he toured in Europe with the American TexMex formation Mendoza Orchestra (a.o. Mundial festival Tilburg NL).

In a short period of time he developed and established himself as a versitile musician. Soon he formed his own dessert-rock band Grenadeers for which he writes most of the repertoire. Guitarist Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stoneage, Them Crooked Vultures) produced the first CD of this band. Recently three of his compositions were played by the Dutch Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (DJOC) together with the Grenadeers in the project “DJOC is cheating”. He is percussionist with the theatre group Close Act with which he plays all over the world. He also is the drummer of his brother and singer/songwriter Liam Pek who recently signed with a Canadian record label. Recently Guy is called to play with singer/performer Sven Ratzke.