About Ad Peijnenburg

My main instrument is the baritone saxophone. As well as that I play sopranino sax, bombarde (this is a double reed instrument from Bretagne in France) and hichiriki (a double reed instrument from the Japanese gagaku music). I play the piano too.

[ see a picture of Ad Peijnenburg here ]

Most people know me as the founder of a saxophone sextet “De Zes Winden” / The Six Winds. This group is concerned with composing and improvising and includes the whole sax family in one group. With this group I made 2 lps and 6 cds. Besides me this ensemble consists of Mariette Rouppe van der Voort on sopranino sax, Dies Le Duc on soprano sax, Kazutoki Umezu on alto sax, Andrew White on tenor sax and Klaas Hekman on bass sax. With this group I’ve been on the road now for 23 years.

My other steady group is a trio together with Thebe Lipere on percussion and Louis Moholo on drums, both from South Africa. I’ve been playing with them for 14 years. So far we produced one home-made cd called Live In Japan. This cd was only available at live concerts and is now sold out. The trio is called JJTOU. I have a special interest in percussion players and drummers so I worked with Alan Purves (Dino records, The Pretty Original Brainstormers), and with the Welshman Steve Hubback (who is also a blacksmith, we made And Other Stuff  + Arrows on FMR records). In the past I worked briefly with drummers like Takashi Kazamaki, Denis Charles, Wim Janssen, Han Bennink, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku and Sabu Toyozumi.

My next group is called the Dejima Ensemble. But maybe it would be better to say this is a long running project with different people each time. What is essential here is the musical communication between Dutch musicians, such as myself, and the Japanese impro-scene. For each tour I make a new combination of European and Japanese improvisers. In this way I played with people like Takashi Kojima (sampling), Shozan Tanabe (shakuhachi) Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar), Masafumi Ezaki (trumpet) and Sato Michihiro (shamisen). The Dejima Ensemble has toured so far in three different forms.

Promotion for The Bizz, a series of concerts of Ad Peijnenburg, Thebe Lipere and Billy Jenkins
Another part of my musical life consists of my temporary projects. In these temporary projects, I invite a musician whom I like. This way of working brought me into contact with a lot of musicians of the global village such as Butch Morris (conducting, cornet), Lol Coxhill (soprano), Raoul van der Weide (bass), Joe Sachse (guitar), Lars Rudolph (trumpet), Michiel Braam (piano), Billy Jenkins (guitar), Eugene Chadbourne (guitar, Dilaver Goktasz (sasz), Carl Beukman (bass), Rik van Iersel (drums, painting), Tari Ito (dance), Theo Bodewes (drums), Wilbert de Joode (bass), Huub Bogaers (cello), Min Xiao Fen (pipa) Muneer B. Fennell(cello)Jacques Palinckx (guitar), William Parker(cd brooklyn calling), Mola Sylla(voice & perc.), Motuharu Yoshizawa(base), Wataru Ohkuma,(clarinet) Jodi Gilbert(voice), Takero Sekijima(tuba), Satoshi Sakurai(gitar), Nick Le Beat(dj). In my home town, Eindhoven, I’ve been running a jazz club and organised a workshop. I started the South Netherlands Jazzfestival and retired after 18 editions. And last but not least: My life as a street musician still goes on, playing solo mostly on sopranino sax, free music, jazz, rock, popular music, gospel, folk and children’s songs, communicating with the sounds of the street........ real live music. And now some music........

Streetwise