Saxophonist Gijs Hendriks and the organ by Berry van Berkum

by Berry van Berkum | Het ORGEL | Year 98 | (2002) | Issue 3

Berry van Berkum Saxophonist Gijs Hendriks and the organ
Het ORGEL 98 (2002), nr. 3, 29-30 [summary]

Jazz musician Gijs Hendriks (1938) was initially notinterested in the organ. This changed when he improvised with the organistJacques Schoenbeck during a jazz festival in Lusserte, France. The result was aseries of concerts with Schoenbeck in France and The Netherlands. He then gotacquainted with Willem Tanke: Tanke composed, and Hendriks ‘tried to addsomething significant to it’. In 2001, Hendriks met organist Berry van Berkum,with whom he gave several concerts as well.

In concerts like these, Hendriks finds it important topreserve the swing of jazz, quite atask in large churches with their great reverberation, and to ‘playmeditatively’. Hendriks: ‘It is not my aim to punish the audience. I don’tlike aggressive music, although I’m happy to play strongly at times. I want togive the audience what it came to the church for, which is, in my opinion,comfort and warmth in the first place.’