People

Dutch guitar player Richard Hallebeek has been playing guitar for over 32 years and has recorded and/or played with Shawn Lane, Scott Henderson, Brett Garsed, Frank Gambale, Scott Kinsey, Dan Gilbert, Greg Howe, Andy Timmons, Carl Verheyen, Michael Angelo Batio, Mattias Eklundh, Randy Brecker, Marco Minnemann, Steve Hunt and many more.

Richard has been playing since he was 10 years old. He went to the Amsterdam conservatory for six years where he studied jazz, improvisation, and composition and graduated in ’91 with a Master’s Degree. He then went to GIT in L.A. to study for a year with Scott Henderson and many more great players that visited the school. While in L.A. in ’94, Richard formed his own group and was busy playing both live and at GIT. At the end of the year at GIT Richard gets a phone call from guitar guru Mark Varney, well know for his monthly 'Spotlight Column' in Guitar Player and his Legato Records label who had featured so many great players Richard was heavily into before moving to L.A. Mark had heard some rumours and was interested in hearing some music.

At the beginning of '95 Richard signs a record deal with Mark Varney and the Legato label and they release Richard’s first album ‘Generator’, together with his mate from GIT Antti Kotikoski. Featured on that album are also Richard’s jamming friends that he has been playing with during his studies; Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Dan Gilbert, Scott Kinsey (Keyboardist from Tribal Tech) and Carl Verheyen all join Richard to create a classic Varney guitar album.

In ’96, Richard returns to Amsterdam and tours Finland, Sweden, Holland and Germany for the ‘Generator’ album. He also hones his skills playing musicals, cover bands and doing countless studio sessions. Richard also joins drummer Rene Engel with whom he records three albums and plays many tours throughout Holland and Germany.

Besides being a much in demand sideman, in 2003 Rich thinks it’s about time to do it his way. He initiates the Richard Hallebeek Project and gets help from Shawn Lane and Brett Garsed who both contribute four solos. Within a month after it’s release on the new guitar oriented U.K. Liquid Note Records label, RHP tops guitar9.com being the best selling and most popular fusion album and the album receives excellent reviews through out the world. RHP maintains a steady seller to this day, becoming quite the fusion classic.

Richard signs with the UK label Liquid Note Records and plays on more releases from the new label: the two collection albums Alchemists I and II both feature Richard with different musicians, the last cd with drummer extraordinaire Marco Minnemann.

In 2008 Richard writes and records another album: ‘Go For It’, together with his favourite rhythm section consisting of Sebastiaan Cornelissen on drums and Frans Vollink on Bas. Trumpet legend Randy Brecker joins them on the album. On this album, Richard shows his mature voice both in writing and playing, playing both guitar synth and regular guitar over a range of fusion-intense songs.

Recently, Richard has played with Swedish Prog Rock keyboard virtuoso Lalle Larsson on his ‘Weaveworld’ Trilogy. The albums ‘Weaveworld’, ‘Infinity Of Worlds’ and 'Nightscapes' were released in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Live, Richard has recently played the bigger guitar festivals; he played the Ziua Chitarelor guitar festival in Bucharest in 2009 with Mattias Eklundh and Guthrie Govan. In 2010 he also appeared on the 2nd edition of Ziua Chitarelor, together with Greg Howe, andy Timmons, Brett Garsed, Michael Angelo Batio, Andy Timmons and William Stravato.
At the end of 2010, Richard headlines the ‘Meeting Of The Spirits’ festival in Leeuwarden, Holland together with Greg Howe and Carl Verheyen.
In august 2011, Richard teached and played for four days with fusion legend Allan Holdsworth and Kiko Loureiro at ESC (European Guitar Summer Campus) in Siracusa, Sicily.

Richard has done two tours with Guthrie Govan and Jose de Castro in 2009 in Holland and Germany, the hugely successful gigs proved that instrumental guitar music is very much alive! Besides that, his teaching skills are very much in demand. He maintains a role as steady guest teacher at the different Dutch conservatories where he explains his way of looking at scales, breaking them up and improvising through changes.

There have been interviews and reviews with and about Richard in the 'Guitarist' and the Dutch 'Music Maker', American 'Guitar World' and 'Jazz Times' and the Japanese 'Young Guitar' and the Italian 'Axe'.

HAS PLAYED AND/OR RECORDED WITH:
Shawn Lane, Brett Garsed, Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson, Mike Stern, Scott Kinsey, Dan Gilbert, Carl Verheyen, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan, Jose de Castro, Marco Minnemann, Andy Timmons, Michael Angelo Batio, Steve Hunt, Randy Brecker and many others.

BIOGRAPHY (solo)
1996 - Mark Varney’s Generator (w/ Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Carl Verheyen, Scott Kinsey, Dan Gilbert) 2004 – Richard Hallebeek Project (w/ Shawn Lane and Brett Garsed)
2008 – Go For It! (w/ Randy Brecker)
2013 - RHPII - Pain In The Jazz (with Andy Timmons, Greg Howe, Randy Brecker, Alex Machacek, Kiko Loureiro, Jose de Castro, Eric Gales, Guthrie Govan)

WITH OTHERS
1994 – MBD – True Colors
1998 – No Respect In ’98 (Live In Finland)
1998 – Rene Engel – Spheres Of Samarkand
2002 – Isotope – Perception Of The Beholder
2002 – Rene Engel – Nostalgia
2002 – The Alchemists – 27 Tracks Of Total Guitar Wizardry
2002 – Salvatore Vecchio & Simone Damiani – Attitude
2004 – Flowriders – Pheromone (EP)
2005 – Flowriders – Starcraft
2005 – Sebastiaan Cornelissen/Frans Vollink - One Spirit
2007 – Moon Baker – ABC Of Romance (w/Candy Dulfer)
2007 – The Alchemists II – 15 Tracks Of Total Guitar Wizardry 2009 – Sebastiaan Cornelissen – U-Turn (w/Alex Machacek, Gary Willis, Jimmy Earl) 2010 – Lalle Larsson – Weaveworld
2010 – Lalle Larsson – Infinity Of Worlds
2011 – Guitar Addiction - A Tribute To Modern Guitar (60 guitar players! w/Ron Thal, Stuart Hamm, Michael Manring, Guthrie Govan and many more)
2012 - Lalle Larsson - Nightscapes