Born in Leeuwarden in 1967, Allard Buwalda already played the saxophone from the age of seven, in the local harmony, first saxophone and later also clarinet and flute. Allard then went to study classical saxophone in Groningen before studying jazz & pop music in Hilversum. In the early nineties Allard completed his Conservatory studies in Hilversum excellently, as a teaching and performing musician.
Allard Buwalda is known from TV / Radio and Theater, where he has been seen and heard with several shows like The Voice of Holland, Idols, X-Factor, the Edwin Eversband, and from Paul de Leeuw (De Kwis).
Furthermore, there is a very good chance that you will unconsciously hear him almost daily, since as a studio musician he is responsible for a lot of Radio / TV and commercial tunes.
As lead alto / soloist he was a member of The Skymasters, AB-4, The Beau Hunks, Cor Bakker and until 2007 the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.
A few years later and Allard has already joined the narrow top of Dutch musicians and has already won two Jazz prizes in 1990, namely the prestigious Pall Mall Swing Award and the Denon Swing Award.
He has also made three solo compact discs: Together (1992), The Right Track (2005) and in 2008 Return of the Elephant with The Phonebone Quintet which has been nominated for an Edison Jazz Award.
Apparently effortlessly he manages to move within several styles of Jazz and Pop music, in which he makes lyrical use of all saxophones, clarinets, flute and piccolo in a lyrical manner.
Since 1996 Buwalda has been a major teacher of Saxophone Jazz and Pop at the Artez Conservatory in Zwolle.
In addition to his solo qualities, he also collaborated on countless compact discs of national and international artists with his horn section The Jayhorns (including David Guetta, Alain Clark, Marco Borsato, etc.).
Photo credit: Veerle Bastiaanssen
