My first recording with Candy, and the beginning of what turned out to be a long lasting collaboration and friendship. Man I was stoked but even more nervous when I heard her message on my answering machine because I was highly intimidated by the musical level of Candy and her band. She always had the best players in her band, and everybody wanted to be in that band. So eventually I called her back to say that I was delighted by her invitation but probably not yet at the right right to join her band. She convinced me everything would be all right, explaining that she’d been asking for my number after she heard me play.
We rehearsed for a week non-stop before our first little tour to Switzerland, and my mother made me some sandwiches for the long bus trip, both not knowing I would be picked up by a $1.000.000 night liner stuffed with wine, vodka and snacks, making me look like a clumsy boy scout on his way to his first survival weekend without parents.
The playing was intense, and the band was so bloody good, I still felt like an amateur kid between some world class players, man what a trip! Fred Wesley would say: I should have bought a ticket.
The tour was a success and me and Peter Lieberom were asked to be Candy’s new horn section after David Rockefeller and Peter Broekhuizen, who were busy touring with Marco Borsato back then.
We recorded some tracks at Thomas Bank’s studio in Amsterdam, all head arrangements by Candy, Thomas and Ulco . The solo on Bird was my first take, like most of the trumpet solos on her albums by the way. On the same record you can hear David Rockefeller, my older and very talented trumpet brother who introduced me to Benjamin Herman and the New Cool Collective Big Band, where we still play together. Now isn’t that romantic?