Karel Boehlee

Karel Boehlee, Born in Leiden, Holland, April 23, 1960
Started playing the piano very young, when his father brought jazz music into his life, Karel's mother played classical music for fun, his brother loved afro-american music, like James Brown, Stevie Wonder Aretha Franklin etc. his sister was more into popmusic. It created the right environment to gather many music styles.
Boehlee learned to play the piano by listening, not through lessons.
He started to realise that he wanted to be a professional musician, when he was more than 20 years old. In 1983 he studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
Since then Karel Boehlee played with Toon Roos, Martijn van Iterson, Peter Tiehuis, Ferdinand Povel, Theo de Jong, Jesse van Ruller, Woody Shaw, Simone Pormes, Toots Thielemans, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Roberta Gambarini, Wynton Marsalis, Lo van Gorp, Hein van de Geyn, Martijn Vink, Gino Vannelli, Joris Roelofs, Ben Herman, Philip Catherine, Hans van oosterhout, Frans van der Hoeven,Tom Beek, Fay Claassen, Peter Erskine and many more. With most of these people he recorded.
He made 8 cd's for the japanese label 'Keystone Records', with Hein van de Geyn and Hans van Oosterhout. In April 2009 Karel has a tour in Japan and Korea with this trio.
He recently recorded with the fabulous Peter Erskine, together with Toon Rroos and Hein van de Geijn.
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Karel is perhaps Holland's best kept secret. I remember hearing him play in the early eighties, when I just returned from the United States. He was the first pianist of this kind of modern class I had ever heard in Holland. And on what level. Over the years Karel has improved and improved. The lines became more thoughtful, the harmony more precise, the rhythm was always very strong, but became larger, more in the pocket. Yet underneath all these ingredients there was always something more powerful, the sound! Karel's sound is unique. His touch just seems to reach you right in the center of where music enters the soul. With impeccable taste Karel will always come up with something fresh, something his own and makes it sound so good. So why is he a well kept secret? Well, Karel is a real player. He simply loves to go out and play. He will play with his old pals in little cafe's, he will play with young and upcoming musicians, he will play with the best pop singers. Karel is a musician at heart. And the business doesn't know how to deal with this. The business wants exclusivity, wants to put a label on someone, wants an image. And somehow Karel is not playing that game. He is not chasing record deals, he is not showing his face at the right spots at the right time, he doesn't search for journalists to do interviews with him. He is busy doing what a musician should do. Play music! It takes people with a broader outlook to recognise Karel's sublimity. He has recorded 8 CD's for a Japanese label, they keep coming back. Karel is the favorite pianist of the legendary Toots Thielemans. Karel is loved by wonderful Dutch pop singer Trijntje Oosterhuis, who will seek him out whenever there is a chance. Real people know that behind this humble appearance a great pianist is residing.