Biography
Nicolaas Adriaan Cornelis van Beeck, better known as Klaas van Beeck (Leiden, January 20th 1903 - Hilversum, October 4th 1979 ) was a noted Dutch jazz conductor, composer and arranger who played the piano, trumpet, saxophone accordion and xylophone.
During the 1930s he played with het Groene Zoodje, the Blue Lyres (the Leiden, not London Blue Lyres band), Majo Marco, and A.V.R.O. Dansorkest. He led the AVRO Dansorkest and AVRO Dance Band.
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He also became acquainted with Theo Uden Masman of The Ramblers, for whom he wrote some arrangements and songs.
Undaunted, in 1940 Klaas van Beeck set up Klaas van Beeck en zijn dansorkest which initially even had AVRO as a client.
He had an eventful World War 2 - escaping twice from the Germans and being injured by a landmine - but went on to play for the Allies after the liberation of the Netherlands and to lead the KRO's radio orchestra for many years.
He is recognized as being the first Dutch arranger of American-style jazz and dance music and amassed a library of 5,000 jazz records over his lifetime.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.