Biography
Born in 1971, Bas van Lier is one of the few pianists of the day who allows himself to be inspired by heavy “soul jazz cats” such as Les McCann en Ramsey Lewis. Combine his love for contemporary R&B and his knowledge of traditional jazz heroes and you get a unique sound; it is powerful, bluesy and subtle at the same time. Van Lier stands out, with his catchy melodies and a contagious sense of rhythm. This makes him appreciated not only by true jazz connaisseurs, but also with a young audience.
It is for obvious reasons that Hans Dulfer, the Netherlands’ most famous jazz saxophone player and jazz fanatic, asked Van Lier to play in his band, of which he has been a part since 2001.
In addition the pianist plays an important role in the Amsterdam Jazz scene as organizer of, among other things, a weekly concert series in the Amsterdam comedy club Toomler, well known because of comedians Raoul Heertje and Jan Jaap van der Wal. Another stand up comedian, Hans Teeuwen, made his debut as a jazz singer on Van Lier’s first album One for my Baby. In 2006 he released the acclaimed CD How does it feel. It contains snazzy jazz interpretations of contemporary R&B songs as well as some of his own works.
Currently Bas van Lier is involved in multiple projects, among which are BL3NDER; a band he founded together with renowned Dutch rapper Def P. Van Lier is the composer of the all of their music and their second album “Gekkenhuis” was released in August 2012. The Duo Def P and Bas van Lier wrote a much praised theatre production “Pimp” which was performed in theatres throughout the Netherlands featuring renowned Dutch actors.
In November 2012 a movie featuring Bas van Lier and well known Dutch jazz musician and comedian Jules Deelder will play the Dutch movie theatres. In addition to performer, van Lier was the editor and production manager of the movie. Titled “de Deeldeliers”, the movie will continue to tour festivals and theatres after its initial release.
Bas van Lier grew up in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, where he became part of the local concert scene early on, performing weekly even as a teenager. He graduated from the University of Groningen in 1998 with a jazz performance degree. He moved to Amsterdam soon after. Since then he has appeared with a wide variety of national and international jazz giants, such as Ralph Peterson, Benny Bailey, Benjamin Herman, Jesse van Ruller, Candy Dulfer and Bennie Wallace.
His CD’s: One for my baby (2000), How Does it Feel (2006) both appear on the Maxanter Records label.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
