Dear all,
Welcome to my monthly update.
The past weeks felt like sitting in a rollercoaster, driving thru many different musical flavors in 5 mins. Something like that…
First of all, it was marvelous to join Peter Maffay and his world class band to be their musical guest on the soon to be released MTV-unplugged recordings! It was a treat to featured in the duet of Peter with katie Melua, and in between the solo’s I had a great time with my world class horn colleagues Benjamin Herman and Frank Mead. Only disappointment was their lack of humor…….
It was great to hang out with the crew, I’m still surprised about how many new friends I met, and I still have many of the german lyrics in my system….6 weeks later….
Another very popular singer, Marco Borsato, recently worked on some new stuff! And I co-wrote and recorded two of the brass arrangements for him, which was an honor. I will never forget how I was blown away by him, his great band and incredible horn section back in 2000, when I visited his famous stadium gigs in Rotterdam, and today I am proud to be part of his band, both as a player and the one responsible for the horn sound in his music, performed together with my homeboys The Special Request Horns.
Jazz news? Yes! Of course! Lots of Jazz news this time!!
First of all, while I am writing this update, I am still recovering from our last gig with the JvD4 @DJS Dordrecht. Man, I am so happy to play together with Karel Boehlee, Aram Kersbergen and the one and only drum legend John Engels…. At 82, this gentle giant still kicks anyone’s ass including mine! What an energy! Our next concert at Jazz in Oudorp on saturday Oct 14 has already been sold out….too bad for those of you who were planning to see us, but a huge milestone for the founder of Jazz in Oudorp, Alexander Stegeman. This is his first concert as a promoter! Well done Alexander, we are looking forward to play in the beautiful church in Oudorp!
More Jazz news? OK! We just recorded the music of the Rotterdam Suite with the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra. All original compositions about Rotterdam, mostly written by our own band members and performed by the NRJO. I wrote a song about Rotterdam myself too. It’s called Oso, which means home in Surinam, and it is a tribute to the surinam society in Rotterdam in general, and particularly to all the beautiful flavors and influences which makes Rotterdam the unique melting pot I love so much. To be continued……!
Next time I will tell you about the upcoming recordings with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, how we prepare the massive upcoming gig at the AFAS Live with Di-rect, the upcoming shows with Marco Borsato, and many more things, so please stay tuned? And in case you would like to catch me at one of the many live happenings, please feel free to visit the freshly updated ‘activity’ section of this site.
Peace! Take care.
Jan.