Toby Delius

tenor saxophone

clarinet

Tobias Delius was born on 15 July 1964 in Oxford, England. He began playing saxophone in 1980 in the German Ruhr region. In 1983/84 he lived in Mexico City where he played in the “Cuarteto Mexicano de Jazz” led by pianist Francixco Téllez.

Delius moved to Amsterdam in 1984 and studied for a short while at the Sweelinck Conservatorium. He quickly became involved with Amsterdam improvisers and dropped his studies to immerse himself in the improvised music scene. In 1990 he was awarded the Podiumprijs from the organisation Stichting Jazz in Nederland. He has worked in Europe and overseas with such musicians as Steve Lacy (October Meeting ’91), Louis Moholo’s Viva-la-black (South Africa ’93), Bill Frisell, Mark Feldman and Trio Clusone (Clusone Jazz ’93), Misha Mengelberg (“Pollo de Mare”, Angelica ’96 in Bologna), Steve Beresford (“Signals for Tea”, Vancouver ’98), Jeb Bishop, Kent Kessler & Hamid Drake (Chicago 2001) and Ray Anderson (Rotterdam, ’01).

Tobias Delius leads his own quartet with Tristan Honsinger (cello), Joe Williamson (double bass) and Han Bennink (drums). The CDs “The Heron” (ICP 033), “Toby’s Mloby” (ICP 034) and “Pelikanismus” (ICP 039) were enthousiastically received both at home and abroad. Delius has a duo with bassist Wilbert de Joode, forms a trio with keyboardplayer Cor Fuhler and various drummers (Louis Moholo and Paul Lovens to name two), and initiated the Trio San Francisco with reed players Sean Bergin and Daniele D’Agaro. He has recently formed apa ini, a group with Wilbert de Joode, Hilary Jeffery (trombone) and Serigne Gueye (djembe).

He can be heard in a variety of groups, including Available Jelly, Sean Bergin’s MOB, Chris Abelen Quintet, Joost Buis and his Famous Astronotes, Frank van Bommel Quartet and Curtis Clark.