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Pierre Courbois (born 23 April 1940 in Nijmegen, Netherlands) is a Dutch jazz drummer, bandleader, and composer.

Career

After studying percussion at the Hogeschool der Kunsten in Arnhem, Courbois left for Paris, the center of jazz in Europe in the early 1960s. He worked with pianist Kenny Drew, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, saxophonists Eric Dolphy, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, and Johnny Griffin, and guitarist René Thomas.

Courbois was one of the first musicians [citation needed] in Europe to experiment with free jazz. In 1961 he became the drummer and leader of the (Original Dutch) Free Jazz Quartet. In 1965 he started another group, the Free Music Quintet, composed of international musicians. He also played and recorded with Gunter Hampel's Heartplants Group with Manfred Schoof and Alexander von Schlippenbach.

In 1969 Courbois founded the first [citation needed] European jazz-rock group, Association P.C. This ensemble, winner of the Down Beat poll, existed until 1975 with Toto Blanke, Sigi Busch, different keyboardists, including Jasper van 't Hof, Joachim Kühn and Sigi Kessler. In 1982 he founded New Association with Heribert Wagner, Ben Gerritsen and Ferdi Rikkers. He has also played with the pianists Mal Waldron, and Rein de Graaff, horn players Willem Breuker, Hans Dulfer and Theo Loevendie, and Ali Haurand's European Jazz Quintet with Gerd Dudeck, Leszek Zadlo and Alan Skidmore.

In 1992 Courbois started a quintet and for the first time in his career performed pieces all composed by himself. This ensemble pleasantly surprised both the critics and the public [citation needed] with a return to the Charles Mingus tradition - thematic, melodic ensemble jazz and an experimentation with linear improvisation. In 1999 he founded the Double Quintet and in 2003 the Five Four Sextet, with Eric Vloeimans, Ilja Reijngoud, Jasper Blom, Paul van Kemenade, and Niko Langenhuijsen.

During the 1994 North Sea Jazz Festival the Bird Award, the highest award in the Dutch Jazz World, was bestowed upon Courbois.[citation needed] Since 2000 he has been a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau and in 2008 he received the VPRO / Boy Edgar Award.[citation needed]

Discography

With Association

With New Association

With Compass

As sideman

With Gunter Hampel

With others

Electoral history

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023)
Electoral history of Pierre Courbois
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2023 House of Representatives Socialist Party 49[a] 102 5 Lost [1]

Notes

  1. ^ Courbois participated as a lijstduwer.

References

  1. ^ "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 43–44. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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