Mike Roelofs

Mike has studied the piano under the guidance of Irv Rochlin and Frank Giebels at the conservatory in Maastricht, situated in the south of The Netherlands. Frank Giebels summarizes his talent as 'intuition is his strongest tool'. When asking Mike himself about his music, you will get a different but also characteristic answer, namely 'you shouldn't talk too much about music.' Mikes career gains momentum when he and the Mike Roelofs Trio (Jonas Burgwinkel - drums, Uli Winz - bass) win the Concours Céramique in Maastricht in 2001. The prize money is being invested in a debut album: Viewmusic. Jazzmozaiek comments: 'The trio demonstrates an already rare homogeneity. (...) Fresh and uncomplicated is the approach of the material that very ambitiously contains 90% Mike Roelofs originals. (...) A debut that counts.' A lot Mike composes himself. He works up his ideas on an old baby grand piano at home. Musically he learns by playing much but also by listening much. Mike: 'Listening to all kinds of music is one of my most important ways to grow. I always tried to play everything by ear and I still prefer to play that way. I'm not trying to copy a certain style, Im always searching for my own sound and vocabulary.' Ín 2002 The Mike Roelofs Quartet (Jonas Burgwinkel - drums, Christophe Devisscher - bass, Frank Sackenheim - saxophones) wins the Frisian Crossover Competition in Leeuwarden.After doing some concerts with trumpet player Ryan Carniaux, who was living in Maastricht, Mike decides to do a duo album: Dialogin', recorded in Harlingen 2003. Mike: "I love small settings such as trumpet and piano and I really enjoy working with Ryan. It was a really challenging project. We definitely learned a lot from doing it." After performing with just the two of us, we were wondering what it would sound like to arrange some of the Dialogin material for a larger band. Swiss drummer Samuel Duehsler, double bass player Caspar van Meel and Ryans brother and excellent saxophone player Brendan Carniaux are added. Mike and Ryan decide to write all new material for this band, which is recorded at two live concerts in Holland in oktober 2004. For now, they decide to play under the name: Mike Roelofs Band. Mike doesn't only play jazz. In 2003 he was also part of the soul-pop-funk band Mo'Jones that played at the North Sea Jazz Festival that year. In 2004 he is touring throughout Germany with Iain Matthews (Fairport Convention/Plainsong) and Curacao with his band Down South. Momentarily when he is not on stage, he works in the studio. As a producer he worked with Arno Adams (who sings pop music in his native Dutch dialect, 'Limburgs') 'Down South Project', (Funky popmusic with jazz and African influences) and the Surfcake Project (groovejazz) together with producer Léon Bartels and guitarist Jurek Cruysberg...