Wessel Ilcken (December 2, 1923 in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...

– July 13, 1957 in Loosdrecht) was a Dutch jazz drummer. Ilcken lived in Paris in his youth, where he began to play drums and played in Piet van Dijk's band. In 1945, he married singer Rita Reys, and led his own group from 1950, touring widely throughout western Europe. He played extensively on the Dutch jazz scene, including on the albums ''Jazz Behind the Dikes'' (1955–56), and worked with the American musicians Joe Carroll, Bob Cooper,

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

, Stan Kenton, and Herbie Mann, as well as the Swedish Lars Gullin. He died in a car crash in 1957.Wim van Eyle, "Wessel Ilcken". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed.

Barry Kernfeld Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians. Education In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at U ...

. In 1963, the Wessel Ilcken Prijs for Dutch jazz musicians was instituted in his honor; this later became known as the Boy Edgar Prijs, in honor of Boy Edgar.

References

1923 births 1957 deaths Dutch jazz drummers Male drummers Male jazz musicians 20th-century Dutch male musicians Dutch expatriates in France {{jazz-stub