Frans Jan van der Hoeven is a Dutch jazz bassist, composer, arranger, solo performer and multi-instrumentalist.
He grew up with music from Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Weather Report, the Beach Boys, Miles Davis, and others. He learned from playing and recording with musicians such as Art Farmer, Tom Harrell, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, Clark Terry, Harry Sweets Edison, Charlie Mariano, Lee Konitz, Steve Kuhn, Barney Wilen, Toots Thielemans, Han Bennink, Lew Tabackin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and many others. His particular style of bass playing can be heard on more than 75 albums.
His background of the music is wide enough to include not only jazz, but also rock, electronic music, Brazilian music and African music. In recent years, he plays with Jesse van Ruller, Bert Joris, Red Yellow and Blue, Eef Albers, Ivan Paduart, Tineke Postma, Fay Claasen, Jeroen van Vliet and many others. He has also been a member of the European Jazz Trio (with pianist Marc van Roon and drummer Roy Dackus) for almost 20 years, and the trio frequently tours Japan.
He also shows his interest in experimental music, and in 1996, he started his solo project, Drum ‘n Double Bass, and recorded his first solo album First Flight, on Via Records, in which he played various instruments including double bass, keyboards, guitar, drums, percussion and more. Van der Hoeven currently teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.
