These are some of the artists and projects I had the honor to work with throughout the years:
La Banda Iré
In 1998 I founded and lead La Banda Iré”, Holland’s first and only Timba-Band.
La Banda Iré performed successfully throughout Europe with as a highlight a performance on the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1999. The band ceased to exist in 2002.
Rumbatá (Rumbata Big Band & Rumbata Beat Band)
Between 1996-2009 I was the pianist and one of the arrangers of Hollands most prestigious Salsa Orchestra, Rumbatá lead by Jaime Rodriguez.
In 1996 Rumbatá performed on the ‘Feria de Cali” in Colombia, the biggest Salsa festival in the world, where Rumbatá had the honor of opening the festival.
Never before had a European Salsa Orchestra been invited to this festival. The result 30.000 enthusiastic Salsa-fans, live coverage on the national Colombian TV and countless interviews on radio and television.
In 2003 Jaime Rodriguez formed Rumbatá Big Band . This phenomenal Big Band played old and new arrangements of classic Colombian repertoire with huge success.
Nueva Manteca
Between 1996 and 2003 I played many international concerts and tours with Nueva Manteca, a Latin-Jazz group lead by Jan Laurens Hartong.
Cubop City Big Band
I joined the Cubop City Big Band, lead by Lucas van Merwijk,in 1996. During the last 13 years we played with many Latin legends like “Chocolate Armenteros, Edy Martinez, Luis Conte, Raul Rekov, Armando Peraza, Nelson González, Leonardo Amuedo and Andy Gonzáles. With a new project called Otro Mundo the Cubop City Big Band will highlight a slighlty different side of South American music as what has been the case in the past years. The most recent projects were a tribute to the Afro-Venezuelan music with percussionist Roberto Quintero in 2010, and tribute to the Afro-Colombian music with harpist Edmar Castañeda.
Estrella Acosta
Since 2004 I have the pleasure to perform regularly with cuban vocalist Estrella Acosta and her band Esquina 25.
For a wonderful collaboration of a different kind, I was asked by stunning flute player Felicia van den End for a cross-over project where her classical flute meets latin and jazz rhythms. A CD will be recorded in 2014 as well!
Van Merwijk’s Music Machine
In 2009 this small but powerful worldmusic group toured around dutch venues with the program “Latin Soul & Boogaloo” featuring master-percussionist Roberto Vizacaino and trumpetist Rik Mol.
In 2010 they invited Manou Gallo (ex-bass-player Zap Mama) form Ivory Coast.
Fabian Nodarse
In 2004 I produced the debut album “Renacer” of Cuban singer/songwriter Fabian Nodarse.
Nils Fischer & Timbazo
Timbazo plays a powerful new interpretation of Joe Cuba’s legendary repertoire and is lead by Europe’s finest conguero Nils Fischer. The debut CD “Gracias Joe Cuba” was proclaimed as one of the best Salsa CD of 2007! In 2014 I co-produced with Nils the long anticipated second album of Timbazo!
Doble Jugada
In 2008 I produced the debut album “Jugando a enamorar” for the salsa-duo Doble Jugada, consiting of Nando Vanin (Colombia) and Fabian Nodarse (Cuba). In 2011 I produced and released the EP “Reafirmando mis pasos”
Izaline Calister
I joined the band of Izaline Calister in 2006. In 2008 I arranged and produced the song “Nos Kultura, Ban Selebre” which was written by Izaline for the “Aña di Kultura” (the cultural year) in Curaçao.
In 2009 I recorded the piano tracks on a her CD “Speransa” which won an Edison. In 2011 I produced together with Izaline the CD “Di Fiesta“, a Christmas album.
In 2012 I co-produced
together with Izaline the album: Kandela on which I arranged a couple of tracks, played the piano and the accordion(!) and did most of the album’s recording and editing as well as about half of the mixing.
Yumarya
After working together in many projects, in may 2014 we started working together on a solo project of Yumarya. The first result is the single “La Vida es un Carnaval” which I produced with a touch of Maracatú, a powerful rhythm of Brazil!
Conjunto Amsterdam
Every tuesday night you can find us in Jazzcafé Alto in Amsterdam playing until the early morning hours. If you are visiting Amsterdam you must come and check us out!
Maria Fernandez
A wonderful new collaboration that came to happen in 2014 was the one with amazing singer Maria Fernandez. I worked with her not only with her band but also with her in a Duo setting.
Jaime Rodriguez Band
A new exciting collaboration with multi-talented Rumbatá leader, composer, percussionist Jaime Rodriguez.
The music is energetic and danceable with influences from Colombian traditional music (like Cumbia, Porro etc) to Michael Jackson-ish beats!