Being a musician nowadays means you have a lot of things to take care of besides just playing well. There are many side activities that are definitely part of the job and that take up a whole lot of time and energy. Being part of a team surely can speed up things. So that’s why Bob Wijnen, Cătălin Milea and I started a new collective: OFFBEAT.
Offbeat is a musicians’ collective offering a broad range of musical directions. Their goal is to spread news, knowledge, to promote their artistry, to create and expand their networking in the music field and other domains. As a team all members complement each other’s talents and compensate each other’s weaknesses.
We had our first introduction this year at the Ujazz Festival, where Cătălin and I turned a collective improvisation into a playful jazzquiz. Next April we’ll have a stand at Jazzahead where we’ll all promote our projects. But before that let’s officially launch this baby with a real
Offbeat event
To really make a festive launch, we’re organizing a mini festival on March 15th in the Amsterdam Badcuyp.
The program
The Bob Wijnen / Dezron Douglas Duo first played together last November in New York, when recording for Wijnens soon to be released album. The other musicians on that CD are by the way Peter Bernstein and Billy Drummond. You can expect a sneak peak of that repertoire!
Saxophonist and clarinettist Cătălin Milea and his Romanian Jazz Collective will be exploring the ‘song book’ of Romanian jazz, performing exclusively compositions of less known or even unknown Romanian jazz musicians. Considered subversive music during the Comunist period in Romania of the 70’s and the 80’s, ‘jazz’ was somehow a way of fighting against the regime. The legacy of this music is performed today by Romanian Jazz Collective, using a modern musical language through the group’s own arrangements.
Grand Finale will be the Unity Project: a tribute to the legendary Blue Note album of the same name (with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Larry Young and Elvin Jones). Besides Ellister van der Molen and Bob Wijnen the striking appeances in this group are seventeen year old saxophonist Gideon Tazelaar and drummer Marcel Serierse.
March 15th | 15.00 – 18.00 | Badcuyp | Eerste Sweelinckstraat 10 | 1073CM | Amsterdam