How were the performances during the festival?
The duo performance that I gave with Timothy Banchet was very intimate in terms of setting. It suited the location well and the audience was listening intently from start to finish. We have put together our repertoire especially for Jazz en Route and wanted to seek adventure in our music. Judging by the positive reactions from the audience, this was a huge success!

Performances by fellow musicians that I have attended myself and that were great, were for example the ‘Steven Brezet Latin Project’ and the ‘Davor Stehlik Quartet’. There is always a bit of subjectivity here, as you check the music you prefer to listen to. The entire programming of Amersfoort World Jazz Festival is diverse and artistically of a high level every year!

What will you take with you to your own festival?
Every year in December I organize the Jazz en Route festival in the city center of The Hague. In short, Jazz en Route is a substantively powerful but accessible festival with both national and international artists and spread across the most unique concert locations within the Royal Quarter. Think of a former bank building with concerts in the vault, accessible via a speak easy bar or a ‘winter garden’ concert, adjacent to the Palace Gardens.

www.jazzenroute.nl

What’s great about Amersfoort Jazz is the distribution of concert locations throughout the city and the identity per location and, relatedly, the type of artist and visitor. This means you see a diverse type of festival visitor, from young to old(er). We want to implement this as much as possible at Jazz en Route, but with its own unique identity that suits the city of The Hague. I think that every city requires a unique model, but you can inspire each other.

Have you made any nice contacts as a result? Or other gigs?
I went to the network meeting in De Observant. Here I met several organizers and I am currently organizing concerts in Brazil and going to India and Thailand at the end of April. Thanks in part to the network meeting during Amersfoort World Jazz Festival!

What are you working on now? New music?
I released my new album ”Sketchbook of Dreams” in October. A 16-piece formation with 11 strings and Rob van Bavel on piano. The music is best described as: melodic, cinematic, romantic, intense, swinging and always with forward motion and a collective sound. In addition, the music is influenced by jazz, classical and Brazilian music. I took lessons in arranging and largely wrote the compositions and arrangements myself, supplemented with two arrangements by Rob Horsting. In addition, I worked exclusively with the Grammy Award Winning engineer Dave Darlington (NYC), who is known for collaborations with Madonna, George Benson, Sting, Ron Carter and many others. In addition to Amersfoort Jazz, I gave two official release shows in October with a full formation, both sold out, and I returned from a tour in Indonesia at the end of November where I literally played for thousands of people. A very special experience that I will not forget! I am currently focusing on the Sketchbook of Dreams tour, with concerts in 2024 and 2025, and I am writing new music for different line-ups.

Do you have any cool listening tips for the enthusiast?
This is of course a question I have to answer ”Sketchbook of Dreams”😁 What I’m personally looking forward to is Chris Potter’s album with Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade that will be released in March 2024. An all star tire 5.0…