After some occasional drumming on various items, Clemens (1980) began singing and playing bass in the band of his older brothers (the Feenbrothers)at the age of eleven. Besides many concerts in Europe, the brothers played at the North Sea Jazz Festival (1993). Later on, Clemens studied jazz and classical bass at the Conservatories of Amsterdam and Detmold (Germany) and received his Master Degree in both fields with honors.
After playing with orchestras like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, his main focus became jazz and improvised music. He lived in New York for a while to take lessons with Ben Street, among others. Returning to the Netherlands, he grew out to be one of the most sought-after bass players around.
In 2010 Clemens started the Clemens van der Feen Band, resulting in an album called “High Places” (2011), with as special guest the great Toots Thielemans! The year 2013 saw the birth of yet a new band, the Clemens van der Feen 4tet, and a new album: “14PM” which was called “ one of the highlights of Dutch contemporary jazz…” by Jazzism Magazine. In 2022 he released a singer-songwriter album called ‘Pop into Being’ under the name Clemens Zebulon. The album was reviewed by Music Maker Magazine:
“…megatalent….lovely album…beautiful record with great songs”
Clemens is currently working with Tutu Puoane (SA), the Paul Lay Trio (FR)and the Harmen Fraanje Trio. In 2021, Clemens was invited to play in the Brad Mehldau Quartet at the Transmission-Transition Festival. Clemens has performed with many other great musicians such as the late Toots Thielemans, Jesse van Ruller, Fred Hersch, Brad Mahldau, Tony Malaby, Pablo Held, Reinier Baas, Ben van Gelder, Chris Potter, Nelson Veras, Harmen Fraanje, Robin Verheyen, Tineke Postma, Kit Downes, Dré Pallemaerts, Becca Stevens, Jorge Rossy, Greg Osby, Marc Copland, Lionel loueke, Jeff Ballard, Mark murphy, Alex Sipiagin, Lionel loueke, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dan Weiss, Ari Hoening, Ben Monder and Billy Hart.
Clemens has been playing all over the world, from jazz clubs in Paris and Tokyo to the Musikverein in Vienna and Carnegie Hall in New York. Clemens plays on a double bass by Daniël Royé from the collection of the NMF.
