Africa meets India
India meets Africa ”Muzikale cohesie die je niet mag missen.” Twee virtuozen, Derek Gripper (Zuid Afrika) en Niti Ranjan Biswas (Bangladesh), beide klassiek geschoold en beide op zoek naar de buitengrenzen van de gevestigde klassieke stijlen, troffen elkaar in Brussel en besloten om hun muzikale vocabulaire nóg verder uit te breiden door hun wederzijdse ervaringen in wereldmuziek, jazz, klassiek en pop uit te wisselen. Dit gaan zij nu doen in de vorm van concerten. Derek Gripper, geboren, getogen en woonachtig in Kaapstad, bewandelde na zijn opleiding klassieke gitaar een onalledaagse weg. Deze bracht hem onder andere naar Mali, waar hij de kora (Afrikaanse harp) ontdekte. Vervolgens werkte hij tien jaar om onder meer stukken van de vermaarde kora-speler Toumani Diabate om te zetten voor gitaar en ook op notenschrift vast te leggen. Naast zijn reis in West-Afrika heeft hij ook het podium gedeeld met gitaarlegenden als John Williams en Debashish Battacharya. Bij eerdere zoektochten belandde hij in India, waar hij zich de beginselen van de Carnatische percussie eigen maakte. In 2017 keerde hij terug naar zijn basis in Zuid-Afrika, waar hij vervolgens vioolwerken van Bach bewerkte voor gitaar. Zijn bewerkingen worden momenteel vastgelegd op cd. Deze wordt later dit jaar uitgebracht. Niti Ranjan Biswas, afkomstig uit Bangladesh en woonachtig in Amsterdam, startte zijn muzikale loopbaan op vijfjarige leeftijd. In 1993 ontving hij een studiebeurs, waarmee hij de mogelijkheid kreeg om aan de Ajrara Gharana oftewel “School Of Tabla” te studeren en les te krijgen van professor Sudhir Kumar Saxena in Baroda, Gujarat. Ook zijn studies met Pandit P.K. Shridhar en Pandit Yogesh Samsi hebben aanzienlijke invloed op...
200 Years Dutch kingdom event
26th September How cool is this! I had been invited by my good friend and master drummer Lucas van Merwijk to participate in a composition he wrote for the celebration event of 200 years of Dutch Kingdom. The composition had to be played with 25 drummers. Now what is really cool is that I invited a former student of mine to also join us and she on her turn invited one of her students, so there we were, three generations of drummers studying the piece toghether and getting ready to perform for the Dutch king and queen on live TV. I guided a group of 5 young drummers, two where only 15 years old! I cant descripe how proud I am of my little group of drummers, how hard they studied on this complex piece and how they nailed it! The performance was set on a schaffolding built over the famous Magere Brug in the centre of Amsterdam. Together with many famous Dutch artists we were a part of this huge production and I must add that I’m honoured to have had been part of it, thanks to Lucas and all the other drumming friends. Click this LINK to see the...Dubble concert Snowy White & Peppino d Agostino
May 30th Whenever I get the opportunity to go die Gaste Garage in Germany to watch or participate in a concert either as photographer or recording engineer, I’ll do so. It’s so much fun working with these kind hearted people. The intimate envoirnment that has been created is exactly my cup of tea… This time I was asked by my good friend en great drummer Juan van Emmerloot, to record the dubble concert in which he plays for both Snowy White and Peppino d’ Agostino. All Juan’s typical jokes and pranks where pulled of course (no tour would survive without them), also his and the other members’ proffesionalism was a feast to be part of. We set up three camera’s and I recorded the whole concert on my Korg MR2000 DSD machine. Of course I can not reveal the whole concert we recorded without permission of the artists, but one composition I am able to share with you. This is Juan’s composition for drums only called “Noisy neighbours”. This performance shows who Juan is and how he communicates, but most of all his musicality, his composing skills and craftsmanship on drums. For me it’s alway a blast working with him and watching him doing his thing. Click this LINK to see what I’m talking about!...
Photo shoot at the Jazz Museum Rotterdam 18-20th of June 2015
How thing sometimes just seem to happen… I walked by the entrance of the museum and ran into Wim van Zon, initiator of the Jazz Museum Rotterdam. After the usual “how are you” and stuff like that he asked me if was interested i filming and taking photo’s of some famous Dutch jazz musicians for DJAZZ.tv. Of course I was interested! The concept was that six different photograhpers would interview and film selected musucians through the eye of a photographer as their point of view is different to a cameraman on film. Also we had to choose an iconic photo to inspire our set up. I chose a Duke Ellington picture sitting behind the piano with only a spotlight on him. What inspired me on this picture was to see the vulnerabillity of a musician and the guts to open themselves up to an audience, as a matter of fact, people you don’t know, have never seen before and actually still don’t see as the theatre is completely dark as if you’re looking into a black hole. So I chose my studio set up to be black and use only one spotlight a little from the side to create hard contrasts and keep the focus on the persons expression as they tell their story. On Thursday the 18th of June I had the first five musicians in front of my camera. So interesting to talk to such a variety of personalities! Everyone with basically the same story to tell as I asked all of them the same questions, but all with a different vibe, so far apart that you wont be...