Frank Roberscheuten Hiptett, Nicki Parrott, Olaf Polziehn, Frits Landesbergen
Biography Frank Roberscheuten Hiptett, Nicki Parrott, Olaf Polziehn, Frits Landesbergen
Nicki Parrott
Born in Newcastle, Australia, Nicki started her musical training at age four with the piano, followed by the flute, soon after. Nicki switched to double bass at the age of 15.
After graduating high school she moved to Sydney to study jazz at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music where she began to play with Australian musicians such as Mike Nock, Dale Barlow, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, and Ten Part Invention. She also toured Australia with Russian musicians Daniel Kramer and Alexander Fischer and American trumpeters Bobby Shew and Chuck Findley. She continued her studies with various bassists including visiting artists Ray Brown and John Clayton.
Nicki was the recipient of two awards, a scholarship to Pan Pacific Music Camps at the age of 16, and first place in the 1992 Jazz Action Society's Annual Song Competition for her composition "Come and Get It." She was also nominated for the annual Australian Young Achievers Award by the Arts Council of Australia who granted her the funds to come to New York to study with Rufus Reid. Nicki came to New York in May 1994.
In June 2000, Nicki began performing on Monday nights at the Iridium Jazz Club with the legendary guitarist and inventor, Les Paul. As part of the Les Paul Trio, Nicki worked side-by-side with guitar greats from Paul McCartney, Slash, Steve Miller to fellow Aussie, Tommy Emmanuel.
Since then she has performed with such notable musicians as Michel Legrand, Joe Wilder, Randy Brecker, Clark Terry, Jose Feliciano, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Dick Hyman, Patti Labelle & the New York Pops Orchestra, Harry Allen, Marlena Shaw, David Krakauer, Ken Peplowski, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bill Mays, Scott Hamilton, Lillian Boutte, Larry Carlton and Houston Person, just to name a few.
In 2007 and 2008, Nicki received back to back honors for Swing Journal's Best Jazz Vocal Album. In 2010 her album Black Coffee received Swing Journal's Gold Disc award. In 2012, Nicki headlined the Fujitsu Concorde Jazz festival.
Frank Roberscheuten
was born in the village of Valkenswaard, The Netherlands, in 1962. Through a friend he became a member of the local woodwind orchestra where he was told to play the clarinet. At age fifteen he formed his first Dixieland band and has been a bandleader since.
In a national radio contest, Frank's band won first prize and the opportunity to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In the early 1980's he studied classical clarinet at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and from there went to the Brabants Conservatory in Tilburg studying with the great Walter Boeykens.
He graduated "Cum Laude". In the meantime he was performing with many different New - Orleans style groups like "The David Livingstone Jazzmessengers" and "The Fondy Riverside Bullet Band". His style was influenced by the great traditional jazz clarinettists like Barney Bigard, George Lewis and Edmond Hall.
His first recording session dates from June 1984 with the "Burgundy Street Jazzmen". At the moment he can be heard on over 90 CDs. Eventually, after listening to the famous Swing Era saxophone players like Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Johnny Hodges, Frank became interested in the Swing Era music of the 1930s and 1940s.
He joined the "Jojo Swingband" and started a new group called "The Swingcats". Being a fan of Duke Ellington, he formed and led the band "A Portrait Of Duke Ellington" with which he toured and recorded for the American label Arbors Records in 1999, the centennial Ellington year. Over the years Frank has played at most of the jazz festivals in Europe and visited New Zealand, Japan and the United States several times.
Although rooted in the traditional jazz, his style became more and more personal over the years. This can be heard in his current groups which you can find under "Bands". Apart from playing in these groups Frank has performed and recorded with many great orchestras like "The Metropole Orchestra", "The Dutch Swing College Band", "The Beau Hunks Saxophone Soctette", "Marty Grosz And His Hot Puppies", "Allotria Jazzband", "Les Haricots Rouges" ,"The Johnny Varro Septett", "The Echoes Of Swing Orchestra" and "Trevor Richards Trio". Besides his activities as a performer, Frank is musical director of The Hot Jazz Workshop in Ascona and Jazzin' July in The Netherlands. He also is the musical director of the Hotel Ascona Swing Festival.
He considers himself fortunate to perform with the best jazz musicians around. His current groups are listed in "Bands"
In March 2016 Frank was rewarded with the prize "Keeper Of The Flame" for his work in the field of Traditional Jazz.
