Yesterday I heard that the fabulous cymbalmaker Roberto Spizzichino passed away, after suffering from leukemia. I visited him last year, and we had a great time together. He was pretty fit then, we had our laughs and our stories, especially he, even though it was really cold! He was a very special man with great humour and enormous dedication, I’m happy to have a couple of his beautiful cymbals to remind me of him. Spizz, RIP!
Auteur: hrjellema - pagina 7
In the past months two albums were released on which I play. One was coming along with the magazine ‘Jazzism’, and was a recording of a live-gig with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw in may this year. We played with several guests in Paradiso (Amsterdam), and the set with Ronald Snijders was recorded and released with the magazine.
The second album is the result of a great tour I did with Mathilde Santing called ‘Sinatra’s Tonic’. We ended the tour playing with a ten-tet, and the last gig at Vredenburg (Utrecht) was recorded. After mixing and mastering it is now released as the live-album ‘Luck be a Lady’. It’s available at Mathilde’s website here, check it out!
Recently I became the drummer of Traeben, a Scandinavian-Dutch jazzgroup (www.traeben.com). Autumn this year we’ll be recording their second album in Germany, but until then we’ll play a couple of nice gigs. For instance this weekend in the Hague: Jazz in de gracht!
With: Fay Lovsky, Claron McFadden, David Kweksilber, Maria Markesini, Tomasz, Ernst Daniël Smid, The Tiger Lillies (from London), Charly Zastrau piano, Florian Friedrich bas, Haye Jellema drums
Last monday we played our gig with the Konrad Koselleck Bigband at the Bimhuis, and Tim Sprangers of De Volkskrant was there. We did things a little different, with Hans Dagelet, Ellen ten Damme and Thibaud Delpeut, and looked back at the 20th century in a theatrical way. Tim gave the concert 4 stars(!), and here’s the review:
Konrad Koselleck Big Band & Hans Dagelet, Ellen ten Damme
Bimhuis, Amsterdam 11/4
4 sterren
Netjes naast elkaar zittende, schuchtere mannetjes. Schuilend achter hun instrument, de ogen turend naar het bladpapier en soms een vluchtige blik naar de dirigent.
Bij een bigband kunnen de composities nog zo mooi zijn, vaak is het staren naar zittende poppen die netjes hun opdrachten uitvoeren. Hoe anders is de praktijk bij Konrad Koselleck.
De oplossing van het doorbreken van de bigband-statigheid is eigenlijk heel simpel: zet er iemand tussen die zich buiten de keurige composities beweegt. Injecteer de bigband met dwaze humor of tegendraadsheid. En, misschien nog wel belangrijker: voeg lef en bravoure toe.
Hans Dagelet zorgt daarvoor. Acteur, sinds kort schrijver, maar ook trompettist. Geen muzikant van de perfecte noten of de juiste jazztiming. Dagelet bespeelt zijn instrument op gevoel. En dat hoeft helemaal niet zuiver te zijn. Dus kijkt hij, te midden van de zeventienkoppige bigband,
wat om zich heen, speelt iets mee, leest wat voor, jut de band op en vormt met tedere klanken die welkome onruststoker.
Diva Ellen ten Damme bestijgt even later het podium en zingt met grote overtuigingskracht My heart belongs to daddy, terwijl haar zwoele blik zelfs charmeur Hans Dagelet lijkt te doorboren. Het is nog beschaafd, maar je denkt wel: dit kan helemaal uit de hand lopen.
Dat gebeurt in de tweede set, als Dagelet de blouse uit zijn broek moet halen om de beslagen brilglazen te poetsen na een theatrale danspartij. De spetterende show, opgezet met theaterregisseur Thibaud Delpeut, geeft een eigenzinnige, sarcastische blik op de 20ste eeuw aan de hand van muziek, theater en gesproken tekst.
Dadaïstische poëzie van Ernst Jandl gaat vooraf aan protestliederen. Pete Seegers Sag mir wo die Blumen sind brengt Ten Damme op dezelfde verleidelijke wijze als Marlene Dietrich. Dagelet spreekt spottend over de aandacht voor het menselijk lichaam, seksuele intimidatie, sociaal
geaccepteerd gedrag en barbiepoppen. Het is een vermakelijke kermis met serieuze inslag.
En de bigband? Die gaat soepel mee in deze paradoxale feeststemming. Koselleck voelt de sfeer goed aan, weet wanneer zijn band moet dimmen of vuren. Buigzaam leidt hij het gezelschap van totale euforie naar tragiek met een knipoog.
Als Ten Damme, zoals vertrouwd, tijdens haar Plattgefickt de handstand doet en de muziek ontploft, weet je het zeker: de overtuigingskracht van een losgeslagen bigband is fenomenaal.
When I was a teenager, I had the opportunity to go to a high-school where music was important. One of the teachers there, Anne Oosterhaven, had seen an American high-school bigband when he was young, and decided that that should be possible in the Netherlands as well. So he started that band, the Bogerman BigBand, and I ended up playing there for five years, learning the business.
Anne was (and still is) very inspiring, and does an extremely important job for all the students that ever played in that band, and for the school. Personally he helped me with a lot of choices I had to make before I went to the conservatory, and he’s always been a great inspiration to me. Last year the bigband celebrated it’s 25th anniversary, and this year the Frysian television (Omrop Fryslân) made a documentairy about Anne and about the band. Watch what he does and who he is, in Frysian, over here:
As 2010 is ending, in a very cold and white Amsterdam, there’s some news to mention. In the last month two recordings were released with me playing on it, and one new recording was made at the Bimhuis.
The first release is the cd of the Frits Landesbergen/Willem Hellbreker quartet, called Saxvibes. It’s all jazzstandards, played the way Willem and Frits like them, recorded in the Powersound studio’s by Paul Pouwer. You can listen to and buy the cd here.
The second one is singer Silvy Lane her new album, called The SoulSilly Experience. It’s all originals, arranged and edited by her and the band, all put together on this album. It’s a little soul, a little jazz, a little funk, check it out and see if you like it: www.sylvilane.com or here.
And last but not least there was the recording of the new Sven Ratzke album: Sven Ratzke macht Musik @ the Bimhuis. With translated and re-arranged songs of Brell, Weill, Joy Devision and Falco, and with lots of guest musicians (Fay Lovski, Tatiana Koleva, Angelo Verploegen), he made a spectacular evening at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. It all was recorded, and after mixing and mastering this live album will be released in 2011.
So, for now I hope you will have a great Christmas time, and all the best and lots of music for 2011!!
Haye
Last weekend we played with the Konrad Koselleck Bigband in VPRO’s Vrije Geluiden. We did three songs, one bandsong with Robbert Scherpenisse, one with Sven Ratzke and an edit of a classical peace with Claron McFadden. You can check out all three of them on YouTube, one is here:
Summer is over, everything and everybody is busy again, and so am I. I’ve been studying a lot the last weeks, prepared some new projects, did a couple of gigs and a dozen rehearsals. For example, I’ve been recording with two singers, rehearsed Linda Smeets her own repertoire for a couple of gigs, recorded (as usual, haha) with Tim and Udo, prepared Sven Ratzke his songs for a ZDF/3SAT TV-registration of his show in Mainz (Germany) this weekend, teaching is starting again at the Conservatory, and last but not least: Lotte van Dijck her album will be released next week. She’s a Dutch pop-/alternative-singer-songwriter, who writes beautiful tunes in Dutch. She recorded her album with me a while ago, but now that it’s finished it will be presented the 7th of September in De Balie (Leidseplein, Amsterdam) at 9PM. If you don’t know her, check out her website or be there next week. You can check out (or buy) the album if you click on the image below. Enjoy!
So we played the North Sea Jazz Festival with the Tim Langedijk Trio, and it was great! We had to get used to the dry sound on the stage a little, but people in the hall said it sounded fantastic. Very nice! For those who were there: thanks for listening to us, for all the others: come and see us soon!
🙂
Now some gigs with Sven Ratzke at the Parade Utrecht and one with Mathilde Santing at the Vondelpark Amsterdam, and then up for some vacation!!!
