Oxymoremusic

Harmen Fraanje (1976) is playing in a lot of different groups in Europe. His own new project is totally improvised music with Michael Moore, Brice Soniano and Toma Gouband, called Aneris. With this group he toured extensively in 2007 after having been chosen as VIP 2007 by the Dutch Jazzclubs.

In 2006 Harmen has been nominated for the Paul Ackett Award, formerly known as the Bird Award; the most important jazz award in the Netherlands, granted by the North Sea Jazz Festival.

In 2004 Harmen received the North Sea Jazz Composition Assignment.
Harmen has had his band with Nelson Veras, Hein van de Geyn and Matthieu Chazarenc. They've recorded 2 cd's for Challenge Records (Sonatala & Ronja), the latest with flutegiant Magic Malik.

Harmen is playing in a lot of bands in Europe:
Eric Vloeimans' Fugimundi with Anton Goudsmit. Their latest CD Summersault received an Edison.
Lievestro 6, a powerful band with some great musicians like Jesse van Ruller, Jasper Blom, Mete Erker, Stefan Lievestro and Hans van Oosterhout.
French drumpoet Toma Gouband formed the group Par 4 Chemin, with Brice Soniano, which now has evolved into Aneris.
Anton Goudsmit just asked Harmen to join his band the Ploctones, so in future more news…
Michael Moore invited Harmen to join his new quartet with Michael Vatcher and Clemens van der Feen, more news coming up…
And then there's a new group Oxymore Quintet, with Oene van Geel, Guiillaume Orti, Mark Haanstra and Chander Sardjoe.
Sheer Music has released a new Real Book in winter 2005; this Real Book contains Harmens composition Sonatala.
During the last years Harmen has been performing on festivals and clubs all over the world. Harmen has played on international festivals in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Oslo, Bangkok, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Kosice, North Sea, Budapest, Reykjavik, Clusone, Brussels, Cap Breton, Trondheim, Sibiu,Madrid, Grenoble, Addis Abeba, Nairobi, Tanger, Avignon, Singapore, to name some...(blabla!!)

Harmen played with musicians like:
Mark Turner, Magic Malik, Kenny Wheeler, Jeff Ballard, Ali Jackson, Philip Catherine, Nelson Veras, Elvin Jones (just 1 tune, but a tune is a tune), Michael Moore, Hein van de Geyn, Metropole Orchestra, Zapp String Quartet, Mats Eilertsen, Toma Gouband, Cristina Branco, Brice Soniano, Stéphane Galland, Rick Margitza, Jesse van Ruller, Reggie Washington, John Ruocco, Han Bennink,Anton Goudsmit, Jasper Blom, Ernst Reijseger, Eric Vloeimans, Hans van Oosterhout, Bert Joris, (actually I lied about Elvin, it was the half of the tune, the other half was played by Peter Beets), Jimmy Haslip, John Engels, Michel Benita, Dutch Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw, Nils Ostendorf, Martin France, Dré Pallemaerts, Guillaume Orti, Michael Vatcher, Guilhem Verger, Bert van den Brink,Thomas Strönen, Olivier Steidle, Nils Wogram, Fredrik Ljungkvist…