Last Friday we played the first concert of the Brecker series. The band played amazing and we had a lot of fun. 22nd of April is the next gig at Rode Hert Studio in Roderwolde.

On 2nd, 3rd and the 4th of februari we recorded the 3rd studio-album at Wisseloord Studio’s in Hilversum. This album is all about the music of Peter Gabriël. 5 arrangers wrote a suite witch in total contained 30 Peter Gabriël songs. This resulted in more than a hour of instrumental orchestral Pop-Rock-Jazz-Music. We played a concert with this music in December at Oosterpoort Groningen. (pictures below) Of course we hope to keep playing this music.

28th of januari Big Band Friesland won the big band contest in Lelystad. The band played an excellent 40 minutes concert witch resulted in the “happy-picture” below.

We started rehearsing a new program i’ve been writing the last few months. All Michael Brecker and Brecker-Brothers compositions: Ode to the do da Day, Squish, Night Jessamine, Broadband, Slang, Midnight Voyage, Minsk, Chime This, El Niño and Never Alone. Really challenging for the band and for me. I’ll keep you posted for concerts in 2023.

Last weekend we recorded most of the trumpets parts at Key Studio’s Akkrum. One more session to go!

Check out my arrangement of Samba Lamento, recorded by Big Band Friesland, featuring Ella de Jong and Jeroen Divilee. Recorded and mixed by Hans Wijnbergen at Rode Hert Studio’s.

Yesterday we recorded the trombone-section with sousaphone for Samba Lamento. What a great sound! Jeroen played a fantastic solo on this chart.

Just started arranging “Chronos”. Wanted to do a little serie of “James Farm-pieces” because i’m a fan! I started with “Polliwog” and did “Two Steps” after. Now the final piece: “Chronos”. My Christmas-present was a book about Greek gods by Stephen Fry. Let’s see what comes out…