Dear visitor,
Welcome to my site! I hope you will enjoy this little update about my musical life.
December is the month of looking back, and while looking back, 2017 seems to have been my most productive year ever! Not in terms of solo work, but the number of releases and live recordings I made as a guest musician/ co-writer / co-arranger are simply insane, and afterwards I have no idea how we made that happen without major incidents or fuck-ups!
And I absolutely enjoyed the variety of people I worked with, and the different musical background they represent. That’s the reason I wanted to be a musician: Make as much beautiful music with as many beautiful people possible.
Only a few releases that just passed my thoughts while thinking back: Di-rect Ladies of Soul, Marco Borsato, Candy Dulfer, Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, 3J’s Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, Steffen Morrison, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Peter Maffay, Katie Melua, Bløf…etc,etc.. Man, what a year, and what a wonderful time I had with all those unique personalities.
Most of the recordings this year were made together with my buddies of the Special Request Horns, Louk and Guido. We never had so many recordings/ arrangements and concerts together in the past 16 years of our existence. However: It feels just like the beginning. More and more people find their way to us to spice up their music with our flavor, or even ask us to be part of their band. I am very thankful for that, proving to me that quality and character do matter, like they matter to me!
The first half of 2018 will look a bit like 2017: Massive tours with Marco, Di-rect and Vrienden van Amstel… but also new appearances with the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, and a massive German MTV unplugged-tour with me as a musical guest of German superstar Peter Maffay and his incredible band.
No bad news at all? Well…..the only problem with this massive touring schedule is that it takes more time than expected to make new SOLO-recordings… There’s plenty of tracks and plenty of ideas, but simply no time to plan a decent recording session.
But I will promise you, and myself, this will happen in 2018 too!
I wish you a lovely, healthy, safe and musical 2018. Whoever you are!
Cheers, Jan.