Joris Teepe (US/NL) is a Dutch-born bass player, composer, arranger, producer, conductor and educator. In Groningen, The Netherlands, he is the head of the Jazz department of the Prins Claus Conservatorium and there he initiated the program “New York Comes To Groningen”, which brings in New York living jazz artists twice the year to teach in Groningen as an extra opportunity inside the jazz department. This very successful program brought musicians to Groningen, such as David Berkman, Adam Nussbaum, Freddie Bryant, Tim Armacost, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, David Binney, Conrad Herwig, Johannes Weidenmueller, Deborah Brown, Jack Walrath, Gene Jackson, John di Martino, Michael Mossman, Steve Nelson, JD Walter, Melissa Aldana, Rogério Boccato and Matt Wilson.
After his study in Hilversum (NL), Joris Teepe moved to New York in 1992, where he took lessons with Ron Carter and very fast met many musicians and started to work there a lot, until today. From the year 2000 on until 2009 he was the bass player in the Rashied Ali Qunitet. Rashied Ali was the last drummer who played and recorded with John Coltrane milestone albums like “Meditations” and “Interstellar Space”.
In 2018 Joris recorded an album with the title “In The Spirit of Rashied Ali”, with John Betch on drums, Freddie Bryant on guitar, Wayne Escoffery, Johannes Enders and Michael Moore on saxophones and Joris Teepe himself on bass. This album is nominated for the Edison Award, which is kind of the Dutch Grammy. In April this year I had the huge honor and pleasure to interview Joris Teepe for almost one and a half hour long. Please enjoy this very open and inspirational talk!
Cover picture by Bernd Ihno Eilts/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019.