Band members Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet

 

Yuri Honing - tenor saxophone

Wolfert Brederode - piano

Gulli Gudmundsson - double bass

Joost Lijbaart - drums

Yuri Honing

 

Saxophonist Yuri Honing (1965) is one of the most prolific musicians in the Netherlands. As a three-time Dutch Edison Award winner and Boy Edgar Award winner, he has toured worldwide over the past three decades with his own groups and worked with Pat Metheny, Paul Bley, Craig Taborn, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Charlie Haden, and many others. With over 15 million streams on Spotify and an original and recognizable sound, Yuri Honing is one of those musicians who continue to shape the Dutch cultural landscape. Whether through music or his contemporary art and sculptures, Honing continues to evolve and surprise in every respect.

 

Honing is often referred to as the Nick Cave of the jazz scene!

This is not David Bowie

 

In Wageningen, the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet presents their new album “This is not David Bowie,” which will be released in autumn 2026. When the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet reflects on David Bowie, it is about much more than an ode to a rock icon. Here, Bowie symbolizes an artistic attitude: the continuous urge to change, to break down boundaries, and to connect different worlds.

 

For Yuri Honing, Bowie was an important source of inspiration from an early age. Not only because of the music, but especially because of the uncompromising way in which he reinvented himself time and again. At a time when many artists allowed themselves to be confined by expectations or genres, Bowie showed that being different can actually be a strength. He did not turn change into a risk, but into an artistic principle.

 

Versatile artist

 

That attitude resonated strongly with Honing's own development. Even before music became central to his life, he occupied himself with visual arts — painting, and later sculpting — and devoured books. His musical path also emerged from this broad cultural curiosity: from jazz to improvisation, from pop and rock to non-Western music, classical influences, and electronics. Time and again, he sought out collaborations and new forms, not out of stylistic unrest, but from the conviction that music must remain in motion.

 

Bowie served as an important example in this regard. Not only artistically, but also socially. His open view on identity, his sense of the zeitgeist, and his continuous search for renewal made him more than just a musician to many. He managed to touch upon themes that only became widely felt years later. Moreover, Honing admired Bowie’s commitment to creating space for African American artists, for example by publicly addressing MTV regarding the lack of diversity. For someone who grew up with American jazz music, that natural openness and cultural cross-pollination felt like something essential.

 

Not imitation but interpretation

 

The relationship between the quartet and Bowie therefore does not revolve around nostalgia or simply playing repertoire. The Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet does not attempt to create a Bowie imitation. The strength of this music lies precisely in re-approaching his work from its own musical language. The so-called “reworks” method plays an important role in this. Fragments of Bowie’s compositions, harmonies, atmospheric worlds, or artistic ideas are used as a starting point for new pieces and interpretations. Sometimes a melody remains recognizably present; sometimes only the spirit of a song is still palpable. It is less about reproducing songs and more about exploring what Bowie artistically represented: freedom, transformation, and bringing together different influences. That premise lives within the entire quartet. The four musicians share a fascination with artists who refuse to be confined within a single style or identity. Bowie’s ability to constantly create new artistic contexts—and to gather exceptional musicians around him in the process—serves as a source of inspiration for them as well. As a result, a tension arises within the quartet between composition and improvisation, between recognition and alienation, and between intimacy and experimentation.

Joost Lijbaart

 

Joost Lijbaart (1967) has been drumming since he was a little boy. He graduated (with honours) from the Hilversum Conservatory, where he was taught by Marcel Serierse, among others.

Lijbaart and Honing have been working together for a very long time. Lijbaart was already part of the first trio that Honig founded in 1960.

In addition to his work as a sideman, Lijbaart also focused on his own projects, such as his quartet ‘Group of Friends’, his duo with pianist Wolfert Brederode, the group Batik, and his improvisation trio with singer Sanne Rambags and guitarist Bram Stadhouders.

Joost Lijbaart is a musician with diverse interests. He has years of experience with the jazz history of the fifties and sixties, played a lot of pop and rock, and studied the musical traditions of West Africa, North India, and the Middle East.  

Conservatories of Amsterdam and Groningen

 

As an experienced teacher, Joost Lijbaart regularly gives guest lectures and classes at conservatories all over the world. Since 2016, he has also been teaching entrepreneurship at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen.

 

Worldwide Fame

 

Joost Lijbaart has toured in more than 90 countries worldwide and performed at many major jazz festivals.

Pers over Yuri Honing

 

The press is full of praise for Yuri Honing and commends his creativity and daring.

 

The Times

 

“One of the most creative and fearless saxophonist of the moment”

 

All about jazz

 

“If the dust of jazz history ever settles, saxophonist Yuri Honing may well be looked upon as one of today's trailblazers”

 

Trouw

 

“With his Acoustic Quartet the music melts into something indescribable’

Tickets concert

 

The concert by the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quintet on Saturday, January 16, 2027, begins at 20:30 at Theater Junushoff in Wageningen.
You order your tickets for this concert off the Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet here.

Locatie

 

Theater Junushoff, Plantsoen 3, 6701 AS Wageningen. Check for directions and parking options at Google Maps

 

Fonds Podiumkunsten

 

The Jazz in Wageningen concerts are made possible in part by the Fonds PodiumKunsten.