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Take Five With Ron van Stratum

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By AAJ Staff
October 2, 2010
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Meet Ron van Stratum: Drummer/percussionist from The Netherlands. Has worked with Jim Beard, Scott Kinsey, Mike Stern, John Beasley, Mike Mainieri, Eric Gale and others.

Currently teaching at Conservatory of Maastricht (NL). Has three CDs out as a leader, and is a clinician for Yamaha drums, and Meinl cymbals and percussion.

Instrument(s):

Drums, percussion.

Teachers and/or influences? Joe Zawinul, Jim Beard, Scott Kinsey, Peter Erskine, Vinnie Colaiuta, Elvin Jones, Pat Metheny.

Your sound and approach to music: I like to play the song not the instrument.

Your teaching approach: Be open to all kinds of music, and learn from everything and everyone you hear. That will get you to develop your own style.

Road story: Your best or worst experience: Counting in, and playing, a wrong tune on a live radio show, while the band played another one.

Your favorite recording in your discography and why? Swingin' in the Swamp, because I finally got the sound from my drums the way I heard them, not through the ears of a mixing engineer; this was because I was the engineer that time.

The first Jazz album I bought was: Billy Cobham's Funky Thide Of Sings, with Randy Breckerand Michael Brecker.

What are some of the essential requirements to keep jazz alive and growing? Venues to play, people supporting the artists by buying their music and not stealing it.

What is in the near future? Promoting my new CD, Swingin' in the Swamp, and playing some festivals.

By Day:

Teaching three days a week at Maastricht Conservatorium, The Netherlands.

If I weren't a jazz musician, I would be a: a person missing something.

Photo Credit

Courtesy of Ron van Stratum

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