Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
Caricature by Felix Wagner of the old, old Samba Jazz Group back in Berlin in the late 80s, with Felix Wagner, piano; Guilherme Castro, bass: and Zito Ferreira, drums.
Today I would like to introduce you to Hendrik Meurkens who is from my hometown Hamburg, Germany but now based in New York. I met him in spring at MICHIKO STUDIOS’ when I was the studio manager there. Because we had a cat in the studio and Meurkens was allergic to cats, I always gave him the “cat free” studio upstairs.
Meurkens was first a two-mallet player in the tradition of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson, but when he heard Toots Thielemans’ harmonica, he changed to this instrument which he taught himself. He’s also a composer whose compositions have been recorded by other artists and featured in the Hollywood movie “Dolores Claiborne”.
