The Groover Big Band is a young and contemporary big band consisting of 19 students from TU Delft. With a repertoire consisting of classics by Count Basie and Frank Sinatra to up tempo Funk and groovy Rock ‘n Roll, the big band is at home in all genres. In the 20 years that the Groover Big Band has existed, it has been able to develop quickly and has proven itself amply at venues such as: Delft-, Goor- and Breda Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz in Switzerland, numerous galas, weddings and of course previous editions of Just Jazz.

This edition of Just Jazz, the Groover Big Band will be joined by none other than guest soloist Gijs Idema.

Gijs Idema started playing the guitar at the age of eleven. He initially chose the music of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, and ended up with jazz via classical music. After hearing jazz guitarists such as Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Jim Hall, he was convinced he wanted to become a jazz guitarist as well.

Gijs Idema won the Prinses Christina Jazz Concours (2014), the Leiden Jazz Award (2016), the Expression of Art Award (2017) and the Keep an Eye The Records (2019). The guitarist/composer has since released a series of successful CDs, including the trio albums Squares (2018) and There (2020), the solo record Marking Time (2020) and Motus (2020) and Cloud Studies (2023) with the Idema/Serierse Quartet.