Dick
Hello there! My name is Dick de Waal, I’m a drummer and jazz lover living in Haarlem. As a language policy maker and teacher of English at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, I never cease to be amazed at the numerous parallels between language and music. Both encompass the same technical and spiritual aspects, require a great deal of passion, practice and patience, allow for full-on freedom and adventure, and can ultimately lead to art forms of astonishing beauty. As a drummer, I have been active in a number of highly low-key combos, like the Snuitkevertrio, Amellem Seit Memorial Jazz Quartet, Jazz Delite and The Westside Groove Regulators. Together with my good buddy, and once flatmate, bass player Ronald Verberkmoes, our current quintet have released two recordings entitled the Church Sessions (2016) and Forest Sessions (2017), featuring various jazz standards and other pleasing tunes. In 2001, I started writing reviews and interviews for Dutch drummers’ magazine Slagwerkkrant, most of which were related to jazz or improvisational music. Among the interviewees were legends like Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes and Peter Erskine. My spare time is predominantly spent listening to and discussing music with my cool friends, some of whom can be found on this very website. Stay tuned for awesome music links, stories and other fascinating stuff.
Dick's favorite jazz album:
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Dick's favorite jazz album:
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Ties
Although I am a classically trained saxophonist I always have had a love for jazz music. Improvisation, swing and groove are things that I have always been drawn to and that fascinate me on different levels. Not only do I keep track of the current jazz scene and go to jazz concerts regularly, also in my concert practice I love to venture into the grey area between classical, jazz, pop and world music. I studied and currently live in Amsterdam where it is always possible to hear any music on any moment of the day. This helped me form both as audience and as a performer. I am looking forward to providing the Jazz Appreciation Society with content: reviews of discs and concerts, youtube and spotify links and whatever comes to mind or I run into.
My favorite jazz track is ‘Mo’ Better Blues’ by Branford Marsalis, on which he gives one of the best solos of all times. It’s only one chorus long but he tells the whole story. There is not one note too little or too many.
(https://open.spotify.com/track/78P3mF3w6APwFpnd6UFH4J)
Although this solo is played by Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker has been my life long obsession. I expect to write a fair amount about Mike Brecker on the Jazz Appreciation Society website.
Check Ties out on Spotify
Ties's favorite jazz track:
Branford Marsalis - Mo Better Blues
My favorite jazz track is ‘Mo’ Better Blues’ by Branford Marsalis, on which he gives one of the best solos of all times. It’s only one chorus long but he tells the whole story. There is not one note too little or too many.
(https://open.spotify.com/track/78P3mF3w6APwFpnd6UFH4J)
Although this solo is played by Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker has been my life long obsession. I expect to write a fair amount about Mike Brecker on the Jazz Appreciation Society website.
Check Ties out on Spotify
Ties's favorite jazz track:
Branford Marsalis - Mo Better Blues
Ronald
When I was a kid, I really enjoyed watching the Dutch TV show De Film Van Ome Willem. For a great part, this was due to their live music combo, called De Geitenbreiers. The big upright bass in that band looked and sounded very cool to me. At the time, my parents had a few records of The Dutch Swing College Band and pianists like Louis van Dijk and Pim Jacobs, which would sometimes be played at our house. But I didn’t become a true jazz appreciator until I started to take up bass guitar lessons at my local music school. This was almost 30 years ago. After a few years of playing the bass, I was fortunate enough to be asked to join a jazz trio, together with two other students attending the same institute. Till then, I had mostly been playing pop and rock tunes. Jazz music I was pretty much unfamiliar with. Our trio had an amazing piano player, whose knowledge and skills were way beyond mine, when it came to both playing and understanding the standards we’d set out to perform. In all honesty, I had no clue what I was doing, really. He reassuringly advised me though, that if I just kept playing the roots and the fifths of each of the chords, everything would be just fine. Now, this guy was playing some of the smartest changes and licks which dazzled and inspired me. His approach and pointers, however, made me determined to be able to play some genuine jazz stuff myself one day. Our first gig we played in the lobby of a local theatre, during the intermission at a Dave Brubeck concert. Before the gig, we sneaked into the balcony seats to catch a glimpse of the soundcheck, where Brubeck (wearing jeans and huge nikes) was trying out the piano and playing a random tune with the band. This, again, all looked and sounded amazingly cool to me. My brothers, playing guitar and keys, were also discovering jazz at this point, and we started figuring stuff out together. I bought some jazz records by Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins (hey, wasn’t he the saxophone player of that great solo on this Stones tune I liked?) and started perusing this stuff. Wow, it opened up a whole new world of music, aside from the other things I was checking out. I also met most of the beautiful people of the Jazz Appreciation Society during that period, simply through making music. To this day, I’m very thankful for that! I feel like there is still a lot to learn and explore for me in jazz and music in general. Being part of the Jazz Appreciation Society will certainly help me attain these goals. Favourite record? That’s a tough one... there are so many. For now, if I have to mention one, I would pick Moanin’ by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers.
It’s funky, it swings (great rhythm section!), and it features the finest solos and legendary licks. In fact, my first blog will be about this song (and its alternate take that I heard just recently and proved to be a real ear opener).
Ronald's favorite jazz album:
Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers - Moanin’
It’s funky, it swings (great rhythm section!), and it features the finest solos and legendary licks. In fact, my first blog will be about this song (and its alternate take that I heard just recently and proved to be a real ear opener).
Ronald's favorite jazz album:
Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers - Moanin’
Evert
As a musician I have been regulating the groove in several ensembles such as Duke5, Schmäckma, and more recently K-Brets, Westside Groove Regulators and Hours. For me, jazz is an inclusive word that describes all music that lives, that comes to life when performed or that is so well recorded (live or not) that it completes the moment when you listen to it. The epitome of this is, of course, the live concert. And yes, dear reader, this means that, by my definition, any music can be jazz. I hope to ensure that this site respects the widest possible interpretation of the term jazz and thus ensures that the reader will always want to return to being a listener because the writing has given her/him a reason to play a record, click on a link or pick up an instrument. This leads me to one more thing: to me, music is almost always better without words. Normally no intervention of words is necessary to appreciate and some words can distract. The contributors here thus have a perilous task to inspire but not take away. Music with words can be a beautiful art form in itself but most music I like does not have words.I think it is helpful to think of music with words as something else, perhaps jazz but more rarely so. As I am a bass player myself I have a special place in my heart and ears for musical bass players. Some great composers are bassplayers (think Mingus) and therefore my recommended track to listen to here is “Three Views of a Secret” composed by Jaco Pastorius – any version with Jaco or any cover version will do; all have their charm. However, if you want to start somewhere, start with the version from The Birthday Concert and enjoy!
Evert's favorite jazz track:
Jaco Pastorius - Three Views of a Secret
Evert's favorite jazz track:
Jaco Pastorius - Three Views of a Secret
Jurgen
Jurgen is my name, I was born on September 5th 1974. Dear people, music is important to me: listening, playing, improvising, composing, producing, talking about it, programming, DJing. I love doing it all. Hence, I’m delighted that I will be able to discuss music even more through this site. I can’t wait to share, post, chat and inspire! I’ve been lucky to participate in quite a few musical journeys myself, in which jazz, groove and impro were essential. In my search for these, I met the good people of the Jazz Appreciation Society. The tenor saxophone, the voice, the drums. They are the three instruments I love to play. Preferably all at the same time. I have produced over 1000 jazz & impro concerts for one of the most beautiful jazz venues in the world (BIMHUIS), and there will be more to come!
My favorite jazz track at this moment is ... (sorry guys, I’m a doubter). My two most favorite jazz tracks at this moment are ...
Jurgen's favorite jazz tracks:
1. Hawton Hawes - The Green Leaves of Summer
https://open.spotify.com/track/4U9g8vrf3usmmV3jW5kcl0?si=OSTWsI42RK6d_iwZWtb1Iw
2. Ellery Eskelin - One Great Day
https://open.spotify.com/track/63BrU1yFWp8blMju0pWSYk?si=dEKKl3a_TTqeUgiR6O0vZA
Soon more Spotify playlists to listen to!
My favorite jazz track at this moment is ... (sorry guys, I’m a doubter). My two most favorite jazz tracks at this moment are ...
Jurgen's favorite jazz tracks:
1. Hawton Hawes - The Green Leaves of Summer
https://open.spotify.com/track/4U9g8vrf3usmmV3jW5kcl0?si=OSTWsI42RK6d_iwZWtb1Iw
2. Ellery Eskelin - One Great Day
https://open.spotify.com/track/63BrU1yFWp8blMju0pWSYk?si=dEKKl3a_TTqeUgiR6O0vZA
Soon more Spotify playlists to listen to!
Wouter
I, Wouter de Moor (born in Bergen op Zoom on 9 October 1966, the day John Lennon celebrated his 26th birthday on a beach in the south of Spain) have a predilection for trivia, 50s and 60s jazz, rock heroes of yesteryear and Teutonic gods who no longer live. Thrown into the realm of jazz by Pithecanthropus Erectus, I love both the sound of a saxophone and heavy metal thunder. Editor of the Wagner & Heavy Metal website. Cheerful as ever with a taste for melancholy, I will in my contributions to the Jazz Appreciation Society mainly rely on the magic of the moment & black coffee.
Wouter's favorite jazz album:
Charlie Mingus - The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady
Wouter's favorite jazz album:
Charlie Mingus - The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady