My name is Kees van Schijndel (1999) and I am a bass player. I play electric bass as well as double bass. From the age of five I have been listening to blues and jazz. I found (and still find) it very entertaining to listen to. My father played a little bass guitar and my mother sang and played piano. My two brothers also love music and play guitar as well. Whenever I heard the music my dad would sometimes put on, I was really impressed. Fortunately, we already had some musical instruments at home, so I immediately tried to play everything. The piano and the guitar soon became my favorites. My brothers also often listened to jazz and blues, and that was fun because we started improvising together a little. Not that I was very good at that, but it was just for fun.

I noticed that music was really my thing. I often listened to Jamie Cullum, Nat “King” Cole, Ray Charles, Diana Krall and Van Morrison. Just some of the artists I still love to listen to.

From the age of nine until the age of sixteen I took guitar lessons. I really loved these lessons, because they allowed me to learn jazz, the music genre that had a big influence on me even then!

At one point I signed up for “JazzinU”, a project that offers young people the chance to perform with a big band on the main stage of Jazz in Duketown. I was already playing bass guitar in an ensemble at the music school in Rosmalen and it seemed super cool to play on the parade. There were too many guitarists available and not a single bass player. One thing led to another: I ended up playing there for five years and I met some very enthusiastic and nice musicians.

After that I joined a similar big band, the Junior Jazz Academy, led by Jeroen Doomernik (trumpet player, conductor). During the rehearsals I learned a lot on the bass guitar: reading notes (sight reading), making grooves, timing and of course tone production. After playing in the Junior Jazz Academy for a few years, it was time to move on to the Jazz Academy, also led by Jeroen Doomernik. That’s a band with older youngsters, where we play more challenging pieces. Eventually I also started composing and arranging for the Jazz Academy. My musical interests and knowledge also started to expand more and more. Currently, I’m studying Jazz bass guitar at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.