Artist(s)

Honing had his first major success in 1996 with his album Star Tracks, which comprised recordings of pop songs as an alternative to the American Songbook. The album became a hit in the Netherlands and Germany, and gained significant notice in the UK as well. The album contains songs by Abba and The Police among others. Honing uses their material as a basis for improvisation; he gladly points out that jazz musicians of previous generations were doing exactly the same. The album Sequel that Honing records in 1999 is in the same vein, using material by Björk, Blondie and others.
The CD Playing (1998) finds Honing performing alongside veteran pianist Misha Mengelberg in twelve freely improvised tracks. Two years later the project gets a sequel at the North Sea Jazz Festival, with cellist Ernst Reijseger as third improviser. The recordings find their way onto the CD Lively (2000).

In 2001, Honing met Paul Bley and recorded the album Seven with Bley on piano, Gary Peacock on bass and Paul Motian ondrums. This album garnered Honing the Dutch Edison Award in 2002.[1] In The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (Eighth Edition) this CD was recognized with four (out of five) stars.

Memory Lane is recorded by Honing in 2002, together with members of the Amsterdam based Concertgebouw Orchestra. It is his first project with musicians from the world of classical music.
In addition to his activities in acoustic and classical music, in 2005 Honing starts a new electric band, Wired Paradise. It features Tony Overwater (on bass guitar) and Joost Lijbaart plus the German guitarist Frank Möbus, best known for his work with the trio Der Rote Bereich.
The saxophonist enters into a new classical collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra in 2006. With conductor Vince Mendoza at the rostrum he records the CD Symphonic with this orchestra. Just like he considers contemporary pop music to be the continuation of the Great American Songbook, Honing sees a parallel between that particular song form and Franz Schubert's lieder. He therefore decides to record a full instrumental version of Schubert's song cycle Winterreise, accompanied by the classical pianist Nora Mulder (2007). He also uses Winterreise as the title for a special concert evening with guests which the saxophonist organizes every year on December 29 at the Amsterdam Paradiso.

In 2009 Honing forms an acoustic band with a chordal instrument for the first time! In his Acoustic Quartet Wolfert Brederode is the pianist, Ruben Samama on double bass, and Joost Lijbaart once again the drummer. That same year Honing also invites dance producer Floris Klinkert for a collaboration, resulting in the CD Phase Five. On this album Floris makes use of samples from the saxophonist's entire discography to produce new compositions. The resulting songs are sung by pop singers like Leine, Sarah Bettens (known of the band K's Choice) and Lilian Vieira (of the band Zuco 103); in addition Honing himself is featured as a soloist. January 2012 Yuri Honing won the Dutch Boy Edgar Prijs.

Other career highlights

• 2001 Honing toured with Bley and bassist Charlie Haden.
• 2003 He performed with guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Scott Colley.
• 2006 He recorded Symphonic with arranger and composer Vince Mendoza.

Composer(s)

Press

An expressive, lyrical and emotional duo jazz recording the two Dutchmen YURI HONING (tenorsax) and WOLFERT B R E D E R O D E (piano) with their latest album "Avalon Songs" ( C h a l l e n g e Records/Bertus)...
Inmusic, 23-4-2021

... With compositions of both musicians (Honing/ Brederode) and others by Charlie Haden, Friedrich Hollaender and Billy Strayhorn a feel-good atmosphere is created...
Jazzpodium 3 4 2021, 23-2-2021

... subdued ballads of beautiful but dark depth, music for coming to rest, meditation or just pleasantly engage in a music of silence. A duo of tenor saxophone and piano means almost permanent playing of both. Yuri Honing and Wolfert Brederode meet this challenge with their chamber European jazz...
Jazz-Fun, 20-1-2021

... ... Long note values dominate, sparse solos happen as if by the way. And everything lives from a nature-like gesture: the piano lets tones fall like heavy raindrops in the title track "Avalon" or conjures up the undulations of an unknown sea in "Ebb", in addition one hears again and again how the breath, that precious commodity, flows through the saxophone and dies.....
Rondo, 16-1-2021

Together with him (Brederode) Honing recorded the equally tender and melancholy music for the album "Avalon Songs", which was released at the end of 2020... ... In "The Flowers Die Of Love", the finale of this album, one senses the greatest possible fragility and a quiet reminiscence of John Coltrane's hymn "After The Rain".
NDR CD of the week, 08-1-2021

... Honing and Brederode concentrate on slow tempi, listen to their partner's sounds and sensitively influence the direction of the sound flow. Honing's breathy intonation reinforces the impression of tender intimacy. They don't need a trip into the realm of legend. Their dialogue fills the present with life.
Audio, 08-1-2021

... Yuri Honing has a strong, characteristic sound, recognizable tone and specific expression. A beautifully recorded album, ideal for long autumn and winter evenings.
Jazz-Fun, 04-1-2021

... All in all, once again beautiful music, which in its reduction allows relaxation to arise, invites you to switch off and seduces you to dream. This music enchants..
Musikansich, 21-12-2020

Carefully they tune their tone sequences to each other, perhaps improvising freely, but always in flowing harmonies. After that, there is only silence...
Na Dann, 18-12-2020

NPO Radio 4 - Vrije Geluiden
NPO Radio 4 - Vrije Geluiden, 09-12-2020

... A highlight is their instrumental version of a song that the composer Friedrich Hollaender once wrote for Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in 1931...
Bayerischer Rundfunk, 08-12-2020

Both musicians create enormous expressiveness with often only a handful of notes
Jazznu, 07-12-2020

... Yuri Honing never regards jazz merely as a style, but rather as a language. His distinct musical instinct always gives his compositions tension and depth...
Radio Dreyeckland, 06-12-2020

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Jazzpress, 03-12-2020

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Le Soir, 01-12-2020

The duo reaches the pinnacle of artistic depth in the national anthem "Black is the Color": every note is touching and sticks to your hearing
Jazzenzo, 30-11-2020

The notes of saxophonist Yuri Honing are touching and deep
De Volkskrant, 26-11-2020

francemusique
Open Jazz - France, 23-11-2020

Now that his playing has become both more sober and more intense in recent years, the emotional charge, just like a good pop song, reaches the listener much more directly
Trouw, 20-11-2020

Yuri Honing and Wolfert Brederode make music so beautiful that it hurts
Het Parool, 20-11-2020

... His tenor saxophone plays soft, sometimes breathy tones, while retaining volume and colorfulness. It leaves room, allows for width, but does not lose its structure...
Jazzthing, 24-10-2020