Joost van Schaik (Zwolle, the Netherlands, 1974), started playing drums at a very young age; at the age of twelve, he was already playing in his father’s Dixieland band, developing an ongoing interest in modern jazz from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He graduated cum laude at the conservatory in Hilversum and in 1995 won the Tama Drummers Award, a prize for the most promising young drummer in the Benelux. That same year he went to New York, where he studied with Jeff “Tain” Watts, Kenny Washington, Carl Allen and Gregory Hutchinson.
Since 1994 he has played with the likes of Curtis Fuller, Toots Thielemans, Peter Bernstein, Ack van Rooyen and Brussels Jazz Orchestra, as well as Jazz Master Tracks Vol.3 bandleader Bert Joris. Currently, he performs with the Benjamin Herman Trio and Philip Catherine’s trio and quartet, among others, and teaches at the Groningen Conservatoire. Over the years, he has contributed to more than 40 CDs.