Ellister: August 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

info@ellister.com

I can hardly believe it but after a lot of fuss my email address info@ellister.com is finally working again!! WOW!!!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Happiest person in the world..!

Look what I got: Duke Ellington: 1936-40 Small Group Sessions
How I was looking forward to this cd set!! I guess I won't sleep for days. Seven cd's with amazing Ellington stuff, and a great book to go with it, including complete discographical information and loads of beautiful pictures. WOW! For those of you who are curious: here is some information on the box.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Singapore

Ok, just to make you all jealous: October 3rd I will be travelling to Singapore with Dim Kesber and the Augmenters. We shall be playing three or four concerts and this is our hotel accomodation. Not bad, is it!

New Generation Big Band on national television - again!

September 8th we shall be recording a tv show with the famous dutch piano player Cor Bakker. In the show Cor travels through the country in a boat, picking up artists as he goes along.. With us will be performing Boris, Krezip and another artist yet to be announced. I'll keep you posted!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Testing Deezer.com

As I just found on Marco Raaphorst´s weblog, there is a new way of embedding music into your weblog. I just really very much need to test this..
So here is for a bit of Clifford Brown with strings: Portrait of Jenny

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

What to do if you have something to celebrate

Philip Harper and René Winter
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Yesterday my good friend Bob had reason to celebrate: he has a new job teaching at a University. So... where to go for drinks?

To a jazz concert of coarse!! Philip Harper was performing with Stef van Es, Vincent Kuyper and René Winter in Scheveningen. Of coarse Bob took some pictures, too. And - of coarse - I set in with the band. How predictable can life be :D

Monday, August 20, 2007

Dias Latinos

happy violins
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Yesterday I played on the dias latinas festival in Amersfoort with a mariachi group. These two violinists came especially from Antwerp to make it happen..
The 'Onze Lieve Vrouweplein' was crowded with people, many of whome were from Mexico themselves. You could tell from the way they sang and danced..!

Monday, August 13, 2007

Nice Review

Yesterday we played a very nice concert in Erkrath, today already there is a very nice review to be found on RP online. If you don't understand german, you'll just have to take my word that it's a very positive review ;)

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Goodbye concert

Sanna performing with us for the last time
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Sanna as well as Lizzy are leaving "Alice in Dixieland". Today we played the very last concert in the old formation. From now on Eva Novoa will be the new piano player and Desi Rovers the new drummer.

Sanna, Lizzy: thanks a lot for the cheerful time and the wonderful music! I'll miss you both..

Lizzy playing Sing Sing Sing for the last time
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Saturday, August 11, 2007

New Generation Big Band plays on the Uitmarkt

Saturday, August 25th the New Generation Big Band will be performing on the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam. This is a yearly event which provides a little preview on coming year's cultural season.
We shall be playing on the Noord Holland stage, next to Panama. The concert starts at 13.00

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

jam session at La Grenouille

De Bruine kikker--- Brown frog (Rana temporaria) Anura
Originally uploaded by Ard's photos

Yesterday me and my friend/collegue Kees Kamphuis had decided to walk into a bar that we had never been inside before. This happened to be La Grenouille, a nice, friendly place on the Molenstraat in The Hague.

After a few drinks and a nice conversation, we decided to come back today with our instruments. All jamsession are closed during summer and - let's be honoust - we miss that!

So today at six we play and have a ball! All those who would like to come: feel free to enjoy, sit in and make it happen :D

Monday, August 06, 2007

Reading

Now that it's holiday, I finally get to reading a bit again. The Rex Stewart autobiography is nice, although the beginning of the book (I'm not a quick reader) consists primarily of a lot of childhood memories.

The David Berkman book is my attempt to try bring some structure in practising. Not only for myself, but also for the students I am teaching. We'll see what happens ;)

Kwakoe

horn section
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Yesterday was the final day of the Kwakoe festival. This is the biggest multicultural festival we have in the Netherlands. During summer there is six weekends of (live) music, movies, sports dancing, information and loads of food.
Since the weather was really sunny, many people came to the festival and the atmosphere was really nice.
We played there with the Glenn Weisz band and - indeed - did we have good food!
On this picture you see me posing with Wiebke Pahrmann (good collegue and friend) and trombone player André Pet.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Vlieland

band bus
Originally uploaded by turbo ellie

Last few days I have been in Vlieland to play with salsa band "Sabor Latino". It has been a very educational trip in many ways.

Labels: "badhotel bruin", "Fernando Lobato", "Poder Latino", salsa, Vlieland

Ellister