26 november 2012

And as always Ompi “Barry White” Tio gets the prettiest girls after the gig

How peacefull, a mother and child reunion

We went to the local ‘Blokker’. The had the ultimate TV-chair and I turned into Al Bundy right away

And of course the day after our first concert chillling on Jan Thiel beach with Pierre Dunker. It’s a hard life for a musician on Curacao…

On my day of I went to Santa Cruz bay, to the restaurant of Captain Goodlife.I ate delicious Lion Fish fish prepared by his lovely Venezolan wife. He ha a Quatrohanging ont the wall. The quatro is a Venezolan instrument, like a big ukulele and it’s also very popular on Curacao. Here’s me playing it and imitating a trombone

After a geat meal and a conversation with the talking parrot who kept saying ‘Hoe gaat het?’ ( “How are you?” in Dutch) Captain Goodlife’s sweet little daughter joined in on the Cajon.

On Saturday we had our last concert. Afterwards we had a great Jamsession with Ompi, Pierre and the young talent Gregory Justicia on rap and beatbox. I recorded the whole evening. It was magic. I will soon release some of the recordings on the site.

———————————————————————————————————-

22 november 2012

Finally, three years after my work as musical director for the Volksoperahuis play
Morto Y Laman, I’m going back to my beloved Curacao.
This time I’m going with the Amsterdam Theatre Collective Likeminds.
We play three nights in Teatro Luna Blou in Willemstad. I play the show ‘Op de liefde godverdomme’ and I play concerts with local musicians Pierre Dunker and Ompitio.

On the airport, a cold blue morning

Reunited with with my longtime Curaçao friends. Rehearsal on the Porch. On the left you see Pierre Dunker, my alltime favourite bassplayer and friend. On the right Raymond ‘Ompitio” Justiana, the island most notorious ‘Tambu’ player. Tambu is the traditional West Africa rooted drum tradition, which survived the enslavement and time. It is the heartbeat of Curaçao, the real thing. I’m really honoured and happy to play with these guys.

This is Khadija Massaoudi, an Amsterdam based actress/singer. I accompy her on the guitar in the show ‘Op de liefde godverdomme‘. She sings in Turkish, bluesy sad lonesome sounds… This is us right before showtime

And finally after three years my favourite ‘Laurens Joensen Trio’ rides again.
Faroer-island language and Mali blues mix with the rhythms of Curaçao. If that ain’t world music.

And here is one happy camper. Learning the Tambu.