Henk Haverhoek (11-02-1947) started making music at age 10. His instrument of choice was the clarinet. In highschool he became impressed with bassists like Ray Brown and Paul Chambers and decided to become a bassist. In 1972 he finished his classical doublebass study at the conservatory of Arnhem.
In 1966, Henk met musicians Ton Wijkamp and Pierre Courbois, with whom he played his first concerts; with amongst others Ruud Brink, Gijs Hendriks, Dizzy Reece and Jimmy Owens. Pierre Courbois asked him for his Free-Music Quartet (with Boy Raaymakers and Peter van de Locht)
In 1968 Henk was asked to play bass with the Rein de Graaff-Dick Vennik Quartet. With Rein, Henk accompanied countless american musicians. To name a few: Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Art Taylor, Charly Rouse, Sonny Stitt, Philly-Joe Jones, Lee Konitz.
He also received many gigs through Wim Wigt's booking agency. This resulted in tours with a.o. Ben Webster, Tete Montoliu, Duke Jordan, Mal Waldron, Horace Parlan, Bobby Jones en Dusco Goygovich.
Henk was also active on the dutch jazzscene: he played with a.o. Ferdinand Povel, Rob Franken, Cees Smal and Harry Verbeke. Together with Cees Slinger and Peter Ypma he formed the houseband of radio show Tros Sesjun during the season 1974 - '75, which accompanied musicians like Thad Jones, Joe Pass, Slide Hampton and Joe Henderson. During that period Henk was asked by Dexter Gordon to join his quartet with pianist Irv Rochlin and drummer Tony Inzalaco.
Besides jazz, Henk also played theater music (with Cor Lemaire), did studio work (with a.o. Ruud Bos, Joop Stokkermans, Harry van Hoof, The Skymasters, the Vara Dansorkest and the Metropole Orkest) and worked a few seasons as bassist with the One Man Show of Toon Hermans. With Jules de Corte, Harry Mooten and Gerard van Bezeij Henk participated in ± 150 radio-performances.
Teaching was important too: In 1982 Henk was appointed doublebass teacher at the conservatory of Arnhem. Teaching still left enough time for perfoming though: In 1984 he toured England with Sal Nistico, in 1987 he went to Japan with Eugen Cicero, and in 1989 - '90 Henk did the theatershow "Oh lady be good" with Gerrie van der Klei, Rob van Kreeveld and John Engels.
During the following years, Henk remained active as a bassist in the quartet of guitarist Klaus Flenter (with pianist Don Friedman), Deborah Brown, violinist Michael Gustorff, and played concerts with a.o. Ed Thigpen and Freddie Hubbard.
Since 1985 he is the bassist of the trio of Pia Beck, which did long tours to a.o. New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, The Caribbean, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New Orleans. Also there was a long musical relationship with pianist Roelof Stalknecht.
Recently, Henk could be heard with the quartet of singer Ronald Douglas (together with Rob van Bavel and Hans van Oosterhout), with the Heinz Kretzschmar Swingtett, the Kwartet Hein de Jong, and as a guest with Benny Bailey and Masha Bijlsma. He is also a steady member of the Guus Tangelder Big Band.