Rob Pronk: The Bebop Years - Studio Sessions 1950-1957 [NJA 2001] - The Netherlands Jazz Archive

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Over the years, many venues in Europe recorded performances by visiting American Jazz luminaries during the heyday of the modern version of the music from 1945-1970. Many of these recorded performances have been subsequently released on compact disc, replete with photographs, detailed insert notes and a variety of extra features including bonus tracks and interviews.

Ronnie Scott’s club in London has offered a series of CD releases as has FiniJazz in Italy, Kongreshaus in Zurich, Jazzhaus from Liedenhalle in Stuttgart, the Gitanes - Verve Jazz Paris series, Europe 1 radio programs Musicorama, For Those Who Loved Jazz and live performances at the Olympia Theater and the American in Sweden Series from appearances at the Konserthus in Stockholm.

Many of the German Radio Orchestras such as the North German Broadcasting [NDR] in Hamburg and Hanover, the West German Broadcasting [WDR] in Cologne and the South Western Broadcasting [SWR] in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden-Freiburg have issued recordings on which American Jazz musicians have appeared as guest artists.

Over the past few years, this august group has been joined by the Netherlands Jazz Archive [Nederlands Jazz Archief] which is releasing a superb series of “treasures of Dutch Jazz” that features an impressive roster of both American and Dutch Jazz artists.

You can view the full catalogue by clicking on this link - Netherlands Jazz Archive [Nederlands Jazz Archief]. Unfortunately, not all of the inventory ships outside Europe but you can access international distribution via www.dustygrooves.com and www.jazzmessengers.com.

Thanks to the generosity of producer Frank Jochemsen and Jan Brouwer of the NJA office and help from drummer, band leader and Dutch Jazz Legend Eric Ineke, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles was sent review copies of three of the recordings in this series. We’ve created a continuing feature on the blog to offer more information about each of these CDs.

Let’s begin with Rob Pronk: The Bebop Years - Studio Sessions 1950-1957 [NJA 2001].

As the Jazz author and critic Mike Hennessey has observed on Rob:

“For a man who has written more than 1,200 arrangements for Holland's magnificent Metropole Orchestra, played trumpet in the band of Kurt Edelhagen, piano with Dexter Gordon, Don Byas, Johnny Griffin, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Zoot Sims and Ake Persson, to name just a few, and written arrangements for recordings by Rob McConnell, Pepper Adams, Hank Jones, Bill Perkins, Benny Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Toots Thielemans, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Lew Tabackin, Claudio Roditi, Andy Martin and dozens more, Robert "Rob" Pronk is a musician whose level of recognition falls far short of his talent and accomplishments.”

With Rob Pronk: The Bebop Years, the music on this recording gives the listener the opportunity to understand Rob’s Jazz roots before all of the activity in the above statement by Mike came about. Indeed, in some ways, the music on this archival recording goes a long way toward explaining how and why Rob Pronk was able to accomplish all of these achievements later in his career.

Here are some specifics about the music on this CD from Bert Vuijsje insert notes.

Rob Pronk: The Bebop Years

“The Rob Pronk Sextet played a major role in Dutch jazz in the 1950s. However, the group, featuring Ruud Brink, Jerry van Rooyen, Rob Madna and Dick van der Capellen, never recorded an album. The Dutch Jazz Archive is therefore pleased to fill this gap with this CD: three never previously released sessions from 1957 showcasing the sextet's core, sometimes joined by other top talents such as Herman Schoonderwalt, Harry Verbeke, Toon van Vliet, Ack van Rooyen, Ruud Jacobs and Cees See…..

It is somewhat of a mystery why the Rob Pronk Sextet never made a record, in view of all the positive attention and high praise bestowed on them. In 1955-56 Pronk fulfilled a modest role in the projects Jazz From Holland and Jazz Behind The Dikes. (Two piano trio pieces on Jazz From Holland and two recordings as pianist/arranger for the Dutch All Stars; for Jazz Behind The Dikes he was involved in only two tracks on the third LP of the series, as trumpet player and arranger with the Wessel Ilcken All Stars.) His own sextet, however, never saw the inside of a record company's studio. 

After Rob Pronk's death on 6 July 2012, his personal archive was bequeathed to the Dutch Jazz Archive. Here we found three recording sessions from 1957, which had been located before in the archives of the Wereldomroep (RNW - Radio Netherlands Worldwide). Most of the members of the Rob Pronk Sextet feature prominently in these recordings: in addition to the sextet's leader on trumpet they are the then just 19-year-old Ruud Brink on tenor sax, trumpet player Jerry van Rooyen, pianist Rob Madna, bass players Dick Bezemer and Dick van der Capellen, and Rob Pronk's younger brother Ruud on drums.

They are sometimes complemented or replaced by a number of top talents from the Dutch jazz scene of those days: saxophone players Herman Schoonderwalt, Harry Verbeke and Toon van Vliet, trumpet player Ack van Rooyen, bass player Ruud Jacobs and drummer Cees See. This music has never before been released on record (three of the thirteen tracks were only featured on the LP box Dutch Light Music issued by RNW, which was not commercially available). The bands, successively named Dutch Jazz Combo, Orkest Rob Pronk, and Rob Pronk Combo, actually illustrate - between January and October 1957 - the transition from West Coast Jazz to hard bop, with Al Cohn's East Coast Jazz, much admired by Rob Pronk, as a stepping stone. We at the Dutch Jazz Archive are proud to now make this essential addition to Jazz From Holland and Jazz Behind The Dikes available to jazz aficionados everywhere. Singer Babes Pronk did not take part in these sessions, but we have unearthed a performance by her as well and added it to this CD as a bonus track- In February 1950, Rob Pronk, playing the piano, made two private recordings on acetates, accompanied by bass player Hans Tan and drummer Jan Opgenhaeffen. Boplicity is an instrumental trio piece: I’ll Remember April is sung by the then 20-year-old Babes Pronk. 

The remaining four bonus tracks feature Rob Pronk in prominent American company. These are the very first recordings he made, in Stockholm in 1953, The Boyd Bachman band was on tour there, with Ack and Jerry van Rooyen and Rob Pronk in the trumpet section, and on 23 August 1953 Stan Kenton gave two concerts there. 'I knew all these musicians from their records. Of course, I had to go see them. Ack too, and Jerry as well, I think', Rob Pronk recalled in 2007. Between the two performances ('We had to see both shows, obviously') he met Kenton's trumpet player Conte Candoli. When he and Ack returned to their seats, the Swedish bass player Simon Brehm - also founder/owner of the Karusell record label - approached them. Rob Pronk: 'He says: "After the second show we will be making recordings." And he says: "Ehm, I need a pianist." And Ack said, pointing a thumb at me: "There's one sitting right here." That's how it went. For me it was quite sensational of course, to play with all these stars.'

On 23 August two pieces were recorded by tenorist Zoot Sims, with Rob Pronk on piano and Kenton band members Don Bagley and Stan Levey on bass and drums, respectively. The pieces were I'm In The Mood For Love and Rough Chance On Love, the latter being an improvisation on the chords of the song Taking A Chance On Love. 'Oh, I remember now that Zoot Sims asked: "How does the bridge go?" Ha ha, he didn't know. I had to show him on the piano. "Oh yeah, okay now", Zoot said.' On 25 August there was another session with three trombone players, Frank Rosolino, Bob Burgess and the Swede Ake Persson, and again Don Bagley and Stan Levey. The two titles were Monotones (a blues theme by Persson) and Don't Blame Me. 'We did that last piece in a number of takes, so I had to play an intro each time. Don Bagley said: "Where do you get that from, a different intro each time?" I'll never forget that; that was fun.

'I wasn't intimidated, but I was impressed and stimulated. It's the only way, just play it like you play it, that's what you're there for. I can't even remember if I was getting paid. I guess so, but that aspect was completely irrelevant. Playing with those big stars, that was it.’”

BERT VUIJSJE

Jazz journalist and author of Rita Reys: Lady Jazz (Thomas Rap, Amsterdam. 2004) and Ado Broodboom trompet (In de Knipscheer, Haarlem, 2017). He also wrote the chapter on the Netherlands in The History of European Jazz (Equinox Publishing. Sheffield. UK. 2018).

English translation Leo Reijnen

And here’s the entire piece on Rob by Mike Hennessey from the Jazzmasters of the Netherlands website.

Rob Pronk: Weaver Of Musical Spells -

For a man who has written more than 1,200 arrangements for Holland's magnificent Metropole Orchestra, played trumpet in the band of Kurt Edelhagen, piano with Dexter Gordon, Don Byas, Johnny Griffin, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino, Zoot Sims and Ake Persson, to name just a few, and written arrangements for recordings by Rob McConnell, Pepper Adams, Hank Jones, Bill Perkins, Benny Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Toots Thielemans, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Lew Tabackin, Claudio Roditi, Andy Martin and dozens more, Robert "Rob" Pronk is a musician whose level of recognition falls far short of his talent and accomplishments.

A self-effacing man with a most appealing sense of humour, which manifests itself from time to time in his charts, Rob Pronk has dedicated himself to Jazz and associated music forms since he gave up studying economics in 1949 to become a professional musician.

Born in Malang, Indonesia, on January 3, 1928, Rob did not have great exposure to Jazz music in early childhood because his father, a railway engineer, was a fan of Charlie Kunz and Victor Sylvester. However, at the age of six he did hear Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" on the radio and was immediately hooked.

Rob's mother sang and played a little piano, and it is typical of Pronk that he says: "My mother would hold me in her arms and sing to me and I used to cry. But not because she sang out of tune."

At the age of eight he began taking piano lessons, but they only lasted for six months because the family was constantly on the move. In 1946, Rob had the good fortune to meet Jerry van Rooyen, when he brought a big band to Indonesia to entertain the troops. Says Rob, "Jerry was later to teach me the fundamentals of arranging and I owe him a great debt of gratitude."

In 1947, at the age of 19, Rob moved to Holland, studied economics at Rotterdam University and gained a bachelor's degree. At this stage in his life he was undecided as to whether to pursue a career in economics or become a professional musician. Happily for music, he finally chose the latter option and enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he studied trumpet, piano and theory.

Rob Pronk's first gigs, in 1949, were on a ship in an international student exchange programme. He began by playing drums, then switched to piano. His idols at that time were Duke Ellington, still an uncontested No. 1, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Teddy Wilson.

It was on one of these exchange trips that he spent some days in New York and visited Bop City where he heard the Buddy De Franco Sextet, which included Jimmy Raney, Kenny Drew, Teddy Kotick and Art Taylor. He also had the opportunity to enjoy performances by Louis Armstrong's All Stars and Louis Jordan's Tympany Five.

In the late 1950s, Rob joined the trumpet section of the Kurt Edelhagen Orchestra in Cologne and soon became its principal arranger. During that period he was called upon to write an arrangement of "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" for Benny Carter who was guesting with the band. Says Pronk: "Benny paid me a great compliment. He said that it sounded like a Quincy Jones arrangement. I felt like a king!"

In the 1960s, Pronk subbed for a week on trumpet in the long-established Dutch band, the Ramblers, and it was then that a colleague in the trumpet section, who was house arranger for the Metropole Orchestra, suggested that he should try writing some charts for this illustrious ensemble.

Rob took up the challenge, met it highly impressively, and, went on to contribute more than 1,200 arrangements to the Metropole library. He has derived tremendous satisfaction from his work with the Metropole Orchestra, which he regards as an aggregation which has no parallel anywhere in the world.

Says Rob: "It is a unique ensemble. It is not simply a big band with an added string section. It is a totally integrated unit and it is a tremendous challenge to write for it, but it is also a hugely fulfilling experience."

Pronk says that, aside from the invaluable help he had from Jerry van Rooyen in developing his arranging skills, he learned by trial and error. "And," he says with a smile, "there were many errors".

He cites as his principal hero in the field of arranging, the late Billy May. "For me," says Ron, "he was the arranger. The master. But I also have great admiration for Bill Holman, Al Cohn, Quincy Jones and Gil Evans."

One memory which Rob Pronk treasures above all was his being commissioned to produce and write the arrangements for a Marlene Dietrich album, "Die Neue Marlene", recorded at the EMI Studios in St John's Wood in September 1964. He conducted a 40-piece orchestra which included Kenny Baker, Harry Roche, Bobby Orr, Kenny Clare, Ivor Mairants and Larry Adler.

He also fondly recalls three sessions in Stockholm:

One in 1953 for Carousel, on which he played piano with Zoot Sims, Bob Burgess, Frank Rosolino, Ake Persson, Stan Levey and Don Bagley;

One in 1983 for the Sonet label, "In Goodmans Land", with Georgie Fame, Sylvia Vrethammar and a studio big band, and another for Sonet in 1988 called "String Along With Basie", for which he transcribed Basie charts for four guitars (Rune Gustafsson, George Wadenius, Bob Sylven and Bobbo Andersson) plus bass and drums.

Pronk's spell as principal arranger for the Metropole Orchestra lasted for more than 30 years, his last recording being with trombonist Andy Martin in 1998. In 1975 he was appointed guest conductor with the orchestra, a post he held for 21 years. Last year, the Metropole administration decided to honour him with a tribute concert to which he was able to invite two special guests of his own choosing.

Rob recalls: "The concert was set for June 1, with my old friend John Clayton Jr. conducting the orchestra, and I planned to invite Bill Perkins and Andy Martin. But, unfortunately, Bill's doctors advised him not to do the gig because of his rapidly deteriorating physical condition. I was lucky enough to be able to get Pete Christlieb to deputise for him and he did a great job.

"Bill Perkins died in August last year and his memorial concert at the Union in Los Angeles was a must for me to attend. I had known him since 1964 and I miss him dearly. He was on my first CD with the Metropole Orchestra, "I Wished On The Moon"."

For the tribute concert last June, the Metropole Orchestra compiled a CD of 18 of the Pronk charts they had recorded between 1982 and 1992 which was presented to the 200 guests who attended the event in the Nordring Radio's largest studio.

Says Rob: "I can't tell you how honoured I was to have Pete Christlieb and Andy Martin with us on that occasion. That was a very emotional event and it took me weeks to get both my feet back on the ground."

As well as being an arranger of the utmost versatility, Pronk is immensely resourceful and has an appealingly whimsical streak to his musical nature which asserts itself from time to time. The arrangement of "I'm Just Wild About Harry", which he wrote in 1986 as a feature for the remarkable guitarist Eef Albers with the Metropole Orchestra, is a good example. It is taken at a furious pace and, in the out chorus, there are key changes every four bars in the first 24, from F to Eb to D to Bb to F and then to Eb.

In addition to his arranging activities, Rob Pronk taught arranging and composition for many years at Rotterdam Conservatory. He won the Nordring Radio Prize in 1981 and the Blaupunkt Music Award in 1988.

Johnny Mandel has said of Pronk: "He is truly a weaver of spells. Not only is he able to draw forth moods and textures from an orchestra that I have never heard before, but he also swings his butt off."

And Bill Perkins said, "I believe he ranks with the finest of our modern composer/arranger/conductors."

Says Rob: "When I look back on my 50-plus years as a professional musician, one of the abiding sources of satisfaction for me is that I had the fantastic good fortune to work with so many of the great musicians I idolised back in the 1940s and 1950s.

"One of the greatest moments in my career occurred in June 1991, when Ken Poston of the KLON radio station in Los Angeles put together an orchestra to perform a concert playing arrangements I had written for the Metropole Orchestra. I conducted the orchestra and guest soloists were Dianne Schuur, Buddy de Franco, Art Farmer, Chuck Findley, Gary Foster and Carl Fontana.

"I got the shock of my life when, during one rehearsal, a man walked up to me and introduced himself as Pete Rugulo. He asked to have a look at my charts because he wanted to see how I scored for strings.

"And another great event for me was the presence at the concert of Artie Shaw, then 81-years-old, accompanied by Arnold Schnberg's daughter. He was planning a tour and he asked me if he could use some of my charts. Imagine that! The man I idolized as a teenager wanting to use my arrangements! And the next day, to cap it all, Artie took Buddy DeFranco and me out to dinner."

by Mike Hennessey, pianist, composer, author

Revisiting Rob Pronk and The Metropole Orchestra [Metropole Orkest]

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

This feature is a mishmash [I've always wanted to use that word in something I wrote for the blog].

It's compilation of a number of earlier blog pieces about Holland's Metropole Orchestra and those who have composed and arranged and conducted it along with some additional information about it's longest serving mentor in this regard - Rob Pronk.

Although Rob passed away in 2012 at the age of 84, the Metropole Orkest continues today but in less robust form than when it was under his tutelage from 1975-96. Not surprisingly, as a sign of the times, the orchestra performs fewer concerts and there is much less emphasis on Jazz.

Thanks to a reminder from a Jazz buddy of Rob's special place in the Metropole's pantheon of composer-arranger-conductors, I thought it appropriate to add more biographical information about Maestro Pronk to form a new introduction for a re-posting of these earlier features on the orchestra.

I've also taken the liberty to add more videos at the conclusion of this collection of writings about the orchestra featuring guest artists performing Rob's arrangements to give you a sampling of his work. 

Rob Pronk was of Indonesian origin. At the time of his birth in 1925, there was no independent country of Indonesia as the islands which form this archipelago were part of the Dutch East Indies.

His father was a railway engineer. As a child he was fascinated by jazz music when he heard Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" on the radio (Ellington also remained his role model later). He received his first piano lessons at the age of eight. 

In his early teens, Rob learned some basic arranging skills from Jerry van Rooyen, whom he had already met when he was on the road in the Dutch East Indies for troop support, but he was largely self-taught and learned through trial and error, much like the early years of one of his arranging idols - Gil Evans.

In 1947 he went to Holland with his brother Ruud (a drummer), where he studied economics in Rotterdam and earned a Bachelor's degree, largely to please his parents.

But he then decided to "follow his heart" and attend the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he studied, trumpet, piano and music theory 

In 1949 he visited New York with the brothers Jerry and Ack van Rooyen , with whom he continued to play in a group he formed called the "Rob Pronk Boptet." 

In 1951 his boptet was temporarily fully integrated into the orchestra of Ernst van't Hoff, with whom he went on tour in Spain. 

Throughout the 1950's he worked with a number of Scandinavian and Northern European musicians, including the baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin, both on trumpet and as a small group arranger. 

At the end of the 1950's, he was hired to play trumpet in the Kurt Edelhagen orchestra, where he also became one of the main arrangers (from 1958). He also arranged for Benny Carter during one of the Jazz icons European tours and also studied briefly with him. 

Beginning in the late 1960's his big break came when he was hired as an arranger with the Metropole Orchestra, for which he wrote over 1200 arrangements in over 30 years. From 1975 to 1996 he was often a guest conductor of the Metropole Orchestra. 

In addition to Duke Ellinton and Gil Evans, Rob credits his influences as Billy May, Bill Holman, Al Cohn, and Quincy Jones. 

Rob Pronk also taught arrangement and composition at the Rotterdam Conservatory for many years.

On a personal note, I came of age in the Hollywood music world when the era of resident orchestras as maintained by the movie studios was coming to an end, although a number of local municipalities sponsored bands for their summer concerts series, and there were many classical orchestras in the area, too.  But this kind of “legit” work never appealed to me [sitting around for what seemed like hours, counting 142 measures of “rest” and then picking up two huge, heavy cymbals to strike them together once before sitting down again to count more measures of rest was not my idea of playing music]. 

Sometimes, the chance to pick-up a few schimolies by riding a bus with a big band came my way, but the music was generally uninspiring and the downside was being out-of-town when the studio contractors called, thus losing your place in the hierarchy.

Imagine my surprise then when I learned that many cities in Europe kept radio orchestras on staff that were supported by various state governments. Can you picture it – being on salary with benefits and showing up for work each day to play Jazz on a regular basis – and this is your “day gig?!” Heck, they even got paid for rehearsals [and the music obviously sounded much because of this extra time to learn it].

Most of the major European countries, but especially Germany and Holland, maintained such aggregations who in turn supplied a steady stream of music for broadcast over radio and television as well as a fairly active performance schedule at some of these countries most renown concert halls.

Holland, a nation of only around sixteen million people, provides government support for two, such orchestras – The Metropole and The Concertgebouw – the former playing at concert venues throughout The Netherlands while the latter performs primarily at its namesake auditorium in Amsterdam.

Unfortunately, for those of us without ready access to Holland, until the advent of concerts streamed via the internet, the music of these orchestras was not widely heard outside The Netherlands.

To compound matters, since it lost its recording contracts with the Koch and Mons record labels, commercial CDs by The Metropole Orchestra are only rarely available and the Concertgebouw Jazz Orchestra, for the most part, has underwritten the issuance of its own recordings during its comparatively briefer existence.

However , thanks to the munificence of a Dutch internet Jazz buddy, as well as, one in southern Oregon, I have been a regular “visitor” to most of the concerts performed by these orchestras over the past ten [10] years or so.

Listening to the way in which the string section of Holland’s magnificent Metropole Orchestra plays Jazz phrasing, one wishes for a time machine so that Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown could be re-make their famous “with strings” albums and benefit from a string section that knows how to play Jazz.

The reasons why The Metropole Orchestra are so adept at Jazz phrasing are explained in the following article about the orchestra, its history and evolution by the noted Jazz author, Mike Hennessey.

[Incidentally, when the string section is included, it is referred to as The Metropole Orchestra and sans strings it is The Metropole Orchestra Big Band.]

Also integrated in this piece for JazzProfiles’ readers is an overview of the orchestra and its origins and development as excerpted from the orchestra’s own website 

The High-Flying Dutchmen - Jazz Now, July 2004 issue

Mike Hennessey spotlights the unique Metropole Orchestra

© -Mike Hennessey Jazz Now, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“The Metropole Orchestra was founded in 1945 by the Dutch Radio Foundation. It came into being because, after the Second World War, Holland's newly re-established public radio network needed an ensemble capable of producing high quality music programmes covering every genre of light music.

Dolf van der Linden was appointed chief conductor and was given the task of recruiting musicians for the orchestra. He began by contacting top class Dutch musicians who were playing in orchestras all over Europe and inviting them to return to Holland to join the new ensemble.

The son of a music dealer who owned several musical instrument shops, van der Linden took violin and music theory lessons from his father, who was an excellent player, and later studied composition at a music academy. When he was 16, he took a job as a theatre organist and, from 1936 to 1939, he worked regularly as an arranger for various radio orchestras. It was after the war that he concentrated on conducting.

The 17-member Metropole Orchestra made its début on November 25, 1945 and has since won international acclaim as a major institution of the European music community.

There is no other ensemble like it anywhere in the world.

The orchestra today has 52 full time members, all on regular salary with full social security and pension rights. It plays an average of 40 concerts a year and spends about eight weeks a year doing studio productions. It is financed by the Dutch government and has an annual budget of 5.5 million euros.

Dolf van der Linden was chief conductor for three and a half decades, up to his retirement in 1980, and he developed the ensemble into an orchestra which included a full symphonic string section and a conventional big band line-up.

The orchestra rapidly earned a glowing reputation throughout Europe, first through radio and television productions initiated by the European Broadcasting Union, then later through live performances in various countries. To date, the Metropole Orchestra has performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Norway, Greece and the United States.

Over the years, the orchestra has worked with a glittering array of world-class vocalists and instrumentalists from the worlds of opera, operetta, musicals, Jazz, rock and pop. But perhaps Dolf van der Linden's greatest achievement was that, in spite of playing in a multitude of musical styles and in constantly changing circumstances, particularly with regard to technical developments, the orchestra always maintained a strong identity of its own.

When van der Linden retired in 1980, he was succeeded by Rogier van Otterloo, the son of the celebrated conductor, Willem van Otterloo. He rapidly brought the orchestra up to speed with the newest developments in music and adopted a double rhythm section policy, one for Jazz and the more traditional forms of light music and one for pop and rock music.

Rogier van Otterloo's involvement with the orchestra came to an untimely end with his death in 1988 at the age of 46. It took a number of years to find a worthy successor and it was in 1991 that Dick Bakker, already a successful composer/arranger, was appointed chief conductor and artistic director.

Bakker studied music at the Hilversum Conservatory and also qualified as a professional sound technician. He has won many international awards and it was with his song, "Ding-a-Dong", that Teach-In won the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest. Since 1982 he has expanded his European activities, composing and arranging music for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, among others.

The brilliant Dutch composer and arranger, Rob Pronk, was the Metropole's guest conductor for 21 years the current principal guest conductor is the Grammy Award-winning Vince Mendoza.

The roll call of artists who have appeared with the Metropole Orchestra over the years is staggering and richly diverse. It includes Charles Aznavour, Burt Bacharach, Kenny Barron, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, Michael and Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, Pete and Conte Candoli, Eddie Daniels, Manu Dibango, CÈline Dion, George Duke, Bill Evans, Clare Fischer, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, Art Garfunkel,

Gloria Gaynor, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Hank Jones, the King's Singers, Lee Konitz, Hubert Laws, Joe Lovano, Vera Lynn, Bob Malach. Andy Martin, Bob Mintzer, Mark Murphy, Peter Nero, the New York Voices, Bill Perkins, Oscar Peterson, Frank Rosolino, Zoot Sims, the Supremes, the Swingle Singers, Lew Tabackin, Clark Terry, Toots Thielemans, Mel Tormé, Sarah Vaughan, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Werner, Andy Williams, Nancy Wilson and the Yellowjackets.

Arrangers and composers who have contributed scores to the Metropole's book include Bob Brookmeyer, John Clayton, Steve Gray, Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Holman, Chuck Israels, Jim McNeely, Vince Mendoza and Rob Pronk.

The Orchestra today has its own recording studio with the control room built by NOB Audio and the control room acoustics designed by the British company, Recording Architecture. Recordings are made and mixed using a Neve VR Legend 60-channel console and a protools mix cube. In addition, there is a hard disc editing system, the full range of state-of-the-art out-board gear and custom-made ATC monitoring facilities. The whole set-up is designed for Dolby Surround post-production and has projection systems installed for the recording and editing of film and television scores.

For live recordings the orchestra uses Audio 1, a mobile studio with separate recording and machine rooms, which is equipped with a first class SSL console, plus state-of-the-art microphones, outboard-gear and monitoring facilities.

Recordings by the Metropole Orchestra are not that easy to come by, but amazon.co.uk currently has 21 releases listed on its website, including albums featuring such guest soloists as Claudio Roditi, Swiss saxophonist George Robert, German saxophonist Peter Weniger, trombonist Andy Martin, bassist Chuck Israels, Clark Terry, Dee Daniels, Bill Perkins, Jiggs Whigham and Lew Tabackin.”

© -The Metropole Orchestra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The Metropole Orchestra is the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. Renowned for its wide-ranging abilities, the Metropole Orchestra performs anything from chansons to World-music, film-scores, Rock- or Pop-tunes as well as high-octane jazz. The orchestra is a regular feature at the North Sea Jazz festival and the yearly Holland Festival along with countless TV and radio programs broadcast to millions. The ever-growing Dutch film and television industry relies heavily on the Metropole Orchestra for its film scores. Since 2005 the Metropole is under the baton of its Chief, four-time Grammy Award winner Vince Mendoza, and can be seen frequenting the concert stage, in festivals and on recordings in the Netherlands as well as internationally.

A sampling of the performers who have shared the stage with the Metropole Orchestra underscores the ensemble’s quality and flexibility to cover a wide range of genres: Oleta Adams, Vicente Amigo, Antony & The Johnsons, Within Temptation, Andrea Bocelli, Joe Cocker, Elvis Costello, Eddie Daniels, Brian Eno, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny, Ivan Lins, Mike Patton, Paquito D’Rivera, John Scofield, The Swingle Singers, Jean ‘Toots’ Thielemans, Gino Vannelli, Steve Vai, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, Dino Saluzzi, Trijntje Oosterhuis, the legendary Turkish singer Sezen Aksu and Fado-queen Mariza, just to name a few.

The CD recording Ivan Lins &The Metropole Orchestra with the Brasilian singer/songwriter Ivan Lins, released in August 2009, received a Latin Grammy for 'Best Brasilian Album'. 

1945-1980

The Metropole Orchestra was popular right from its inception in 1945 by founder Dolf van der Linden, who led the group from one success to another. When van der Linden formed the group shortly after the Second World War, his mandate was to create an ensemble with the ability to produce high level performances of pop and jazz music for public radio. He traveled extensively throughout Europe to find the right mix of musicians for his orchestra. His refreshing and challenging musical ideas spoke directly to a public starved for a new musical culture after years of war. Dolf van der Linden directed the orchestra for 35 years. Radio, and in later years television broadcasts helped spread the orchestra’s fame even further. International tours and pan-European broadcasting (EBU) brought the Metropole’s musical message to countless listeners all over the world

Perhaps the greatest compliment to the legacy of Dolf van der Linden is that the Metropole Orchestra has maintained its own unique musical personality and still continues to develop within an increasing variety of musical styles and technical innovations.

1980-1991

The energetic, young Rogier van Otterloo, the son of the famed classical maestro Willem van Otterloo, followed van der Linden as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Van Otterloo’s enthusiasm was contagious and the orchestra developed into a first-class ensemble with the flexibility to work in the newest genres in light music, from rock 'n roll onwards. The Metropole Orchestra was expanded to include a double rhythm section, one for pop-music, the other for jazz- and World-music. Van Otterloo developed into a major figure as composer and arranger. Soloists from genres ranging from American top jazz stars to Opera divas joined forces with the Metropole Orchestra. The orchestra contributed greatly to the growing European jazz scene.
 

1991 and beyond

Dick Bakker’s arrival to the Metropole brought a new life to the Metropole orchestra. The group made countless appearances in large-scale television productions at home and abroad and a selection of memorable performances including the Acropolis concert with George Dalaras and Mikis Theodorakis in Greece, and performances at Amsterdam’s rock temple, Paradiso. At the same time, The orchestra moved to a new, modern studio and worked steadily on recordings for radio, television, cds and film soundtracks.

In 1995 Vince Mendoza began his relationship with the orchestra primarily in the area of jazz. The relationship blossomed with the music that he wrote for the orchestra as well as the concerts and recordings featuring many of the top Jazz and Pop soloists in the world. During this time a new fleet of arrangers and composers joined the ranks to create the contemporary sound of the orchestra that you know today. In 2005 Mendoza became the chief conductor and continues to maintain the high level of performances that the public has grown to expect from the orchestra. Today the Metropole is active with more than 40 concerts a season on concert stages all over the Netherlands and internationally.

In 2013 the dynamic young British conductor Jules Buckley was appointed as the Metropole Orkest’s newest chief conductor, after having been guest conductor since 2008.

Composer, orchestrator and conductor Jules Buckley is musical pioneer who pushes the boundaries of contemporary genres. In 2004 he co-founded the Heritage Orchestra, a flexible chamber ensemble, dedicated to performing new music with a daring approach to crossing and linking musical genres. As the principal guest conductor of the Metropole Orkest in recent years, Jules has led projects with Snarky Puppy, Laura Mvula, Gregory Porter, Tori Amos, Markus Stockhausen, Michael Kiwanuka, Jonathan Jeremiah and UK house music duo Basement Jaxx.

Ever the musical agitator, Buckley’s work has led to collaborations, recordings and live projects with the likes of Massive Attack, Arctic Monkeys, John Cale, Emeli Sandé, Cinematic Orchestra, Jamie Cullum, Beardyman and Dizzy Rascal. This year, he has worked with the WDR Big Band, Jose James and the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Patrick Watson and L’Orchestre Nationale d’ile de France, and arranged and conducted Caro Emerald’s number one album “The Shocking Miss Emerald”. Other recent highlights include work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chilly Gonzales, as well as various performances of the hugely successful Urban Classic project, including a BBC Radio 3 Prom, where he conducted the BBC SO alongside some of the leading lights of the British urban music scene including Laura Mvula, Maverick Sabre, Jacob Banks, Wretch 32, N-Dubz’ Fazer and Lady Leshurr.

INTERNATIONAL SOLOISTS

The Metropole Orchestra prides itself on the glittering array of great artists it has worked with. In alphabetical order, the lineup of stars: Oleta Adams, Sezen Aksu, Antony & The Johnsons, Charles Aznavour, Burt Bacharach, Victor Bailey, Kenny Barron, Shirley Bassey, Jeff Beal, Jim Beard, Tony Bennett, Andrea Bocelli, Terry Bozzio, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Ray Brown, Patrick Bruel, John Cale, Amit Chatterjee, Chico Cesar, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, Pete and Conte Condoli, Elvis Costello, The Creatures, Pete Christlieb, Ronnie Cuber, Eddie Daniels, Manu Dibango, Céline Dion, Eva de Dios, George Duke, Brian Eno, Sertab Erener, Peter Erskine, Bill Evans, Clare Fischer, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, Bruce Fowler, Art Garfunkel, Gloria Gaynor, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrel, Conrad Herwig, Roger Hodgson, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Al Jarreau, Ingrid Jensen, Hank Jones, Junkie XL, Mike Keneally, Nancy King, The King's Singers, Lee Konitz, K's Choice, Hubert Laws, Ivan Lins, Joe Lovano, Vera Lynn, Kevin Mahagony, Bob Malach, Mariza, Andy Martin, Nancy Marano, Dina Medina, Daniel Mendez, Pat Metheny, Bob Mintzer, Mark Murphy, Andy Narell, Daniel Navarro, Silje Nergaard, Peter Nero, Ed Neumeister, The New York Voices, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Alan Parsons, Mike Patton, Bill Perkins, Oscar Peterson, Fabia Rebodao, Diane Reeves, Paquito D’Rivera, Frank Rosselino, John Scofield, Zoot Sims, Sister Sledge, Mike Stern, The Supremes, The Swingle Singers, Lew Tabackin, Within Temptation, Clark Terry, Jean 'Toots' Thielemans, Tulug Tirpan, Mel Tormé, Rafael de Utrera, Steve Vai, Gino Vannelli, Sarah Vaughan, Harvey Wainapel, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Werner, Andy Williams, Nancy Wilson, The Yellowjackets and Karim Ziad.

INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS/ARRANGERS/CONDUCTORS

Michael Abene, John Adams, Manny Albam, Jeff Beal, Bob Brookmeyer, Dori Caymmi, John Clayton, Michel Colombier, Bill Dobbins, Clare Fisher, Steve Gray, Tom Harrell, Peter Herbolzheimer, Bill Holman, Chuck Israels, Jim McNeely, Vince Mendoza, Bob Mintzer, Ennio Morricone, Ed Neumeister, Chuck Owen, Gunther Schuller and Maria Schneider.

The music on the following video is from an April 11, 2003 concert entitled "Traces of Brass: Traveling from Traditional to Contemporary Music." The conductor is Vince Mendoza. I do not have factual information to this effect, but I'm assuming that Vince also did the arrangements for the music in this program.

The music on the last three videos is from a 75th birthday concert which the Metropole gave for Rob. The birthday broadcast took place on June 1, 2003 at the Broadcast Music Center in Hilversum, The Netherlands. It was re-broadcast on February 11, 2008 on NPS Radio 6 [The Netherlands] as part of the program - “In Concert: The Bands.”

Bassist, composer, arranger John Clayton was flown in from the United States to direct The Metropole Orchestra as were tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb and trombonist Andy Martin as principal soloists

A total of seventeen of Rob’s charts [arrangements] were performed that evening for this once-in-a-lifetime concert.

The first tune is Peace by Horace Silver which features the superb trombonist and bass trumpeter, Bart van Lier.

The second tune highlights Pete Christlieb on tenor sax performing Billy Strayhorn’s Raincheck.

The third song is a stunning arrangement of Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debby with Arlia de Ruiter as the violin soloist.