Meanwhile I was getting more and
more influenced by the soul music that was playing on the radio and I was very
happy to be a stand in bass player in the soul band of my cousin.
Then my friends
decided to play hindu music, and so my first gig in a sold out big theatre was
playing music from India….
What really changed my life, was meeting
classical guitar player Robby Favery .He introduced me to his father who gave
me classical guitar lessons.
In the year 1969 I got the chance to come to Holland
and attend the Royal conservatory in the Hague .there I studied with Pereira Arias
and later with Jan Goudzwaard. I studied classical music for four years, but then
there was this cultural clash inside my head.. Getting homesick I wanted to play
and explore the kaseko music more. And so I started to play with kaseko bands
like "The Rythmmakers" and also with other bands from different musical
directions like "Ritmico especial" leaded by Jan Helder. I also got
interested in ethnic music from all over the world, and searched in music libraries
for material. Of course I was also influenced by jazz music. I took some lessons
from Joop Scholten, and bought American studiebooks.
In the late seventies
I was making a living, playing nightclubs all over Europe in different formations.
I played in clubs, hotels, on cruises and in ski resorts etc.. etc.. These years
gave me a lot of experience.. But. I wanted to play own compositions.
Together
with singer Erwin Bouterse We formed the "Rutu band" and we made some
strange but nice compositions, a mixture of kaseko, pop and jazz .With this band
we successfully travelled former Yugoslavia.
I also played in a show orchestra
"Dutch Rhythm and Steelband" and had a lot of fun… In the mid eighties,
I was very pleased when my old friend Ronald Snijders (flute player and composer)
asked me to join him, doing educational school concerts as a duo. We did a lot
of concerts in Holland and abroad (not only school concerts) and we had very long
talks about life while driving or flying to these gigs. Later he also asked me
to join his band, in witch I play until now. It was Ronald who also inspired me
to take the first step of recording my first CD.
I met singer Thoko Mdlalose
from South Africa around 1985, she settled in Holland after working with Stevie
Wonder and Mongo Santamaria, and I was very glad to play in her band for a few
years.
You can also listen to her beautiful voice on my first CD (the track
"Yebo uthando") where she sang the choir with her sister Thandi.
In
the beginning of the eighties I was also influenced by poetry, this was because
my friend Paul Middellijn, asked me a lot to accompany him on his beautiful poems.
Later Paul made the switch to storytelling, and until now I am accompanying Paul
all over the world with my guitar. We performed at universities like the university
of Legon in Ghana and Blackmore university in Philadelphia U.S.A. but also in
kindergartens in Sweden, the Antilles, storytelling festivals and workshops in
Spain and Austria, Theatre tours in Switzerland, too much to mention, also educational
work in the interior of Surinam. Paul also introduced me in 1991 to sax player
Keimpe de Jong, who was looking for a composer with Surinam roots for a special
project .I composed the poetry suite witch I also recorded on my first CD (in
another arrangement) Then I found out that Keimpe was also playing in a band together
with multi reed player Klaas Hekman called "Nazaten van prins Hendrik".
I liked this band because they had no particular musical style. They played music
from all over the world and sometimes used very crazy arrangements. We started
calling it "Bastaardmusic" After I joined them we did some very nice
tours in Holland and other countries like Portugal etc.. We even went to Surinam
in 2002 where we did crossover projects with a Kawina group and a Gamelang ensemble.
We also used one of my compositions as part of a project to play with the military
and the police bands from Surinam, together in one big jam. This was a great honour
for me. Sometimes I also compose for "the Nazaten" and they allow me
to be very free in my writing.
In the spring of 2003, I had a pleasant surprise,
I was asked to arrange some of my compositions for two classical guitars, and
to play them together with guitar virtuoso Stanley Noordpool. It was a very nice
project, and at the concert Robby Favery (I had not seen him for 30 years) joined
us in the finale.
At this time I am very busy, but I have to make some more
time for my own band, because after my second CD, I had no time even to promote
it.
I produced two CD's under my own name, "Different realities"
in 1995 and "A prayer for peace" in 2001.
I play with different musicians
on the tracks, because I love the difference in musical timing.
I received
many requests to play my own compositions in concert again.
That's why I was
very glad when flute player and friend Bart Platteau offered me his help on making
a website. Bart is a great flute player and besides teaching at the conservatory
of Rotterdam you can hear him not only on my CDs, but also on the many CD's of
his wife Amina Figarova.
A person with whom I also play for fun and laugh
a lot is Dana Fung Loi.
And of course, there are other music friends like
Glenn Weisz, Dino Walcott and a lot more. Trough the years I also had the opportunity
to play or record occasionally with artists, such as:
Barbara Lynn, Solomon
Burke .Oscar Harris, Thoko Mdlalose, Ruth Jaccot, Denise Jannah, Anita Meijer,
Big John Russell, The Dolly Dots, Amina Figarova, Carlo Jones, Max Nijman, Johnny
Miranda, Eddy Veldman, Rosa King, Cesar Zuiderwijk, Hans Dulfer, Candy Dulfer,
Matt Mathews, Freek de Jonge, Gerda Haverton, Jurgen Rayman, Jan Akkerman, Jarmo
Hoogendijk, Curtis Knight, Phillip Harper, the Twinkle stars, the Happy boys,
Orlando Seymonson, and many, many more... |
