About Johan
Johan Plomp (Enschede, 1969), studied double bass and arranging/composing at the Hilversum's Conservatory (now Conservatory of Amsterdam) with Viktor Kaihatu, Rob Langereis, and Kenny Napper, among others. In 1995 and 1996 he took his final exams very successfully and since 1996 he has been working as a teacher at this conservatory. Since 2005, Johan has also taken classes with composers Jim McNeely and Maria Schnneider. He took conducting lessons with Jan Stulen, Vince Mendoza and Lucas Vis.
Since 1989, Johan has been active at home and abroad as a bassist, band leader, composer, arranger and conductor. As a bass player/composer he can be heard on more than 30 CDs, both as a band member but also as a (co-) band leader (ao with What's the tonic, Mete Erker, New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, Martinez Move, Loet van de Lee, Wim Overgaauw , Cees Slinger and many others). As arranger/composer/conductor he has collaborated on more than 25 CD productions, 2 of which under his own name with the Johan Plomp Small Big Band and a number of CDs with exclusive arrangements by his hand (including Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra 'Introducing', ' Suite To A 'T' 'and' Take The Space Trane '(featuring Mark de Clive-Lowe) and Laura Fygi's' The Best Is Yet To Come'). He has also written arrangements for, among others, the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Zuco 103, the Metropole Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Tineke Postma and many other companies. He has also published a series of arrangements of Dutch jazz compositions. As (guest) conductor he has worked with various orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad, including the Metropole Orchestra, DeWolff, JOC, the NJJO (national youth jazz orchestra) and the BYJO (Belgium). Johan is also an internationally renowned and much in demand jazz pedagogue who works with young top talents at various institutes.
Plomp's most recent project is "Johan Plomp's Optophobia", a band in traditional jazz quintet line-up whose music can be described as "looking back on tradition with a contemporary look".
Johan has performed with an endless list of great musicians, including Wim Overgaauw, Jesse van Ruller, Ferdinand Povel, Brad Mehldau, Jim McNeely, Benjamin Herman, Jason Lindner, Frank "Ku-Umba" Lacy ...