Pierre Courbois

Who is Pierre Courbois?

Sir Pierre Courbois is a Dutch jazz-drummer, bandleader and composer.

After studying percussion at the Hogeschool der Kunsten in Arnhem, Courbois left for Paris, the center of Jazz in Europe in the early 1960s. There he worked with a number of jazz giants such as pianist Kenny Drew, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, saxophonists Eric Dolphy, Ben Webster, Stan Getz and Johnny Griffin and guitarist René Thomas.

Courbois was one of the first musicians in Europe to experiment with free jazz: In 1961 he became the drummer and leader of the Free Jazz Quartet. In 1965 he started another group, the Free Music Quintet, composed of international musicians. Its album at the ESP label has been called the best example of European Jazz. He also played and recorded with Gunter Hampel's Heartplants Group with Manfred Schoof and Alexander von Schlippenbach.

In 1969 Courbois founded the first European 'Rock-Jazz' group, Association P.C.. This famous ensemble, winner of the Down Beat Poll, existed until 1975 with Toto Blanke, Sigi Busch, different key-boarders, including Jasper van 't Hof, Joachim Kühn and Sigi Kessler. In 1982 he founded New Association with Heribert Wagner, Ben Gerritsen and Ferdi Rikkers. He has also played with the pianists Mal Waldron, and Rein de Graaff, horn players Willem Breuker, Hans Dulfer and Theo Loevendie, and Ali Haurand's European Jazz Quintet with Gerd Dudeck, Leszek Zadlo and Alan Skidmore.