Wessel Ilcken

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Wessel Ilcken was a Dutch jazz drummer, born in Hilversum in 1923. His mother gave him a drum kit and he taught himself the instrument for the most part. He was influenced by Jo Jones, the drummer of Count Basie's orchestra. During the war the German occupiers banned jazz, but Ilcken played in Piet van Dijk's orchestra. There he met the singer Rita Reys, whom he married in 1945. At first he went along on her travels as her husband, but he took a seat behind the drum kit when the drummer fell ill.

Music and breakthrough

The couple performed in North Africa and in Great Britain and in 1950 settled in Stockholm, an important European jazz centre with musicians such as Arne Domnérus and Lars Gullin. Back in the Netherlands, from 1954, they played as Rita Reys and the Wessel Ilcken Combo, including at the Amsterdam club Scheherazade. Ilcken worked on records and on stage with Americans such as Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton, Herbie Mann, Joe Carroll and Bob Cooper. He played on the albums Jazz Behind the Dikes from 1955 and 1956.

Influence

Ilcken was also a good water-skier and in May 1957 became the first Dutch champion. Shortly afterwards he died, aged 33, of a cerebral haemorrhage. His name lives on in the Wessel Ilcken Prize for Dutch jazz musicians, which was established in 1963 and later became the Boy Edgar Prize. He was regarded as a central figure of Dutch jazz in the age of bebop.

Listening

In School of Rock

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