Ferdinand Povel wins 2011 VPRO/Boy Edgar Prize

The 2011 Boy Edgar prize has been awarded to saxophonist Ferdinand Povel.  VPRO/The Boy Edgar prize is widely regarded as Holland’s most prestigious award in the field of jazz and improvised music. It is awarded annually to a musician or composer who has made significant contributions to the Dutch jazz scene.

The prize will be presented on 16 May 2011 at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and broadcast live on Radio 6 and on the internet as a videocast vprojazzlive.radio6.nl

The VPRO/The Boy Edgar prize was first awarded in 1963 and is named after physician and editor in chief of Excerpta Medica, an international medical journal, he was known as G.W.F. Edgar; in the world of jazz he was better known as Boy Edgar. He was an active trumpet player for many years, but became famous as the musical director and conductor of Boy’s Big Band (1961 - 1971) and later Boy’s Sound. For years he performed with Boy’s Big Band during monthly radio broadcasts and in tv series. Memorable also were many of the band’s concerts, featuring the likes of Abbey Lincoln, Eric Dolphy, Max Roach, Ben Webster and Nina Simone.

Among the laureates during these past four decades are many renowned Dutch jazz musicians, such as Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, Guus Janssen, Ernst Reijseger, Ab Baars and Franky Douglas. Recent recipients of the VPRO/Boy Edgar Prijs are Luc Houtkamp (2004), Benjamin Herman (2006), Bert van den Brink (2007), Pierre Courbois (2008), Ernst Glerum (2009) and Anton Goudsmit (2010)