Articles by Joan Gannij
John Engels Just Turned 90, But Who’s Counting?
by Joan Gannij
What do you give a man for his 90th birthday, who has everything in terms of chops, contentment, experience, and energy? How about a special edition of an Edison Prize, combined with a birthday tribute concert. Amsterdam's Bimhuis was packed to standing room, filled with friends, family, musicians and music lovers. This was no ordinary birthday celebration, although there was a cake, flowers, balloons and some special gifts, including an invitation from Sonor to visit their factory in Germany. John ...
Continue ReadingFrank van Berkel: New Programmer at Amsterdam's Bimhuis is Committed to Serve and to Curate
by Joan Gannij
Frank van Berkel, the new Programmer at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam's premier jazz club, is no stranger to the music world. He started out as a musician, double bass/bass guitar, and played many venues back in the '80s and '90s, including Amsterdam's rock palace Paradiso and the Bimhuis, with different bands, that included Nine Tobs, Remo Tobs, The Schismatics and the Berkel band. “I was a musician who started organizing and promoting concerts because making a living as a musician is ...
Continue ReadingCharles McPherson: The Man and His Muse
by Joan Gannij
Acclaimed alto saxophone wizard Charles McPherson has a new muse: his 25-year-old daughter Camille, a premier dancer with the San Diego Ballet, where he also serves as composer-in-residence these days. McPherson was a young father in his twenties, with three children from a first marriage. Thirty years up the road, after marrying the lovely Lynn, a classical piano teacher in San Diego, he became the father of a daughter once again. “Thirty years, that's a big difference," he says, with ...
Continue ReadingRamon Valle: The Amsterdam transplant remains rooted in Cuba
by Joan Gannij
After transplanting himself to Amsterdam 20 years ago, Ramon Valle's island roots still run deep. Valle was raised in the eastern part of Cuba, in Holguin, in a musical family, with a trumpeter father, a mother who sang and recited poems, and five sisters; four who played piano, and another who was a multi-instumentalist, playing saxophone, clarinet and flute.. He started studying piano and trumpet at age seven, under the tutelage of his father, and muses. “I was playing the ...
Continue ReadingLouis Hayes: Still Moving Straight Ahead
by Joan Gannij
Louis Hayes will turn 80 on May 31 (2017), but the party is still goin' hearty. He started celebrating this milestone back in February with an 18-day tour that began in Barcelona and concluded in Amsterdam. It was mostly one-nighters with three nights in Athens, two in Paris and London appearances at the usual places, like Fasching in Stockholm, the Sunset Club and Ronnie Scott's. I caught the Detroit native during his final concert at the Bimhuis in the Dutch ...
Continue ReadingNorth Sea Jazz Festival Recap: A Moveable, Musical Feast
by Joan Gannij
North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands July 10-12, 2015 Three days immersed in sounds and sensations. Followed by two days at home in zombie mode, zen silence. Rather than do an exhausting commute from Amsterdam to Rotterdam each day (by train or auto (50 miles / 75 kilometers each way), I opted to stay at a B&B in Delft, one of the oldest towns in The Netherlands, and the de facto capital back in 1581, ...
Continue ReadingNorth Sea Jazz Festival 2015: The Roller Coaster Has Taken Off
by Joan Gannij
Jan Willem Luyken, Director of the North Sea Jazz Festival, has a lot to celebrate this year. It is not only the 40th anniversary of the popular festival, it's also the tenth anniversary of their move from the Hague to Rotterdam, and the year that Luyken became director. Described as “the world's largest indoor music festival," it attracts an international public of 75,000 during the music-packed weekend in mid-July at the Ahoy Rotterdam Arena complex. No stranger to ...
Continue ReadingJohn Engels: Looking Back, Moving Forward
by Joan Gannij
Drummer John Engels has the energy of two forty-year olds, which is pretty impressive, since he will soon be turning 80. He will celebrate this auspicious occasion with the Vogel Vrij (Free as a Bird) tour, a series of concerts at diverse venues throughout the Netherlands (with saxophonists Benny Golson and Benjamin Herman) which began in April and continues through October. A book was also recently published in Dutch: Hé Vogel, Wanneer Spelen We Weer?: Het Muzikale Leven van John ...
Continue ReadingBen Sidran: The First Existential Jazz Rapper
by Joan Gannij
Ben Sidran is an old school hipster in the authentic sense of the word. He's a no frills, musician's musician who's got the heart, got the chops. He's been there, done that, and ready to do more. Sidran has never been interested in following trends or squeezing into categories and is not about to start now. “In jazz, they want you to be yourself, but they only want you to be yourself in their category, and if you're not, it ...
Continue ReadingBimhuis at 40: Older, Better, Business as Usual
by Joan Gannij
The Bimhuis is turning 40 and is still very much in its prime. Beginning October 1, Amsterdam's venerable jazz club will celebrate this milestone with a variety of concerts, activities and special events. The Bimhuis opened in 1974 after a lengthy search for a suitable venue for improvising musicians. Over the next decades it would become the most important jazz institution in the Netherlands, not only as a venue but also as a crossroads for the leading performers and budding ...
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