Music is not what I do, it’s who I am
Music is not just something I do, it is also who I am. Constantly searching for the forms that best fit the moment and the world around me.
Current projects:
- Mijlpaal (Milestone), an autobiographical solo concert, which is allowed to keep developing. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_OmjCe_ikhw
- One Woman Latin Band https://studio.youtube.com/video/LUVUHbEsOgo/edit
- International collaborations: I make contact with musicians in the country I am about to visit, in order to perform together there. Through the internet we can already prepare a great deal, on location we rehearse (usually just once, at most twice), and then we give our performances. I have gained unforgettable experiences this way in, among other places, Cape Town and townships in South Africa, Miami and Arkansas in the US, in Cuba, Curaçao, Suriname, Trinidad and French Guiana, and various countries in Europe.
Here are some videos of the past:
my version of Coltrane’s Giant steps, during my graduation-concert, GHilversums Conservatorium
After graduation, I became more involved with Latin and Caribbean music.”My composition and our number 1 hit in Curaçao 1992 with our Orquesta Sanvada
I very early started having my own bands. Already in 1986, we toured the Ardêche,France, with my jazz quartet. The only way to make a living was having several bands and teaching a lot. I did a two years post-graduate study in cultural management, hoping to make a better living. Working as a festival-manager I met my Cuba connection, and we founded the “Claves Foundation”, I lived on and off in Havana. Doing business with Cuba proved too complicated. The band I brought to Holland and on TV from Cuba: Proyeccion Sonera
I focused on my own playing again and made a CD with the music from Curaçao that I had collected for 20 years:” CARICIA DI TOTOLIKA.” Together with leading musicians from Curaçao we recorded an all-acoustic CD, preserving a unique music style:
I longed to get back to Latin Jazz, with more improvisation. I put together the “Afro Caribbean All Stars” and took this 9-piece Latin Jazz band to South Africa. Being a female band leader is unique, with my group of Caribbean male musicians , full of machismo! The band sounded explosive, and we did valuable workshops in the townships. There are only rehearsal recordings!
From 2004 on, I have been in Suriname almost every year, performing and teaching, often in combination with a trip to Caribbean islands. In 2009 I went to Miami to play with the Magnum Band, a famous Haitian group,
and I returned to South Africa for a smaller tour. With TUCAN TUCAN in Capetown:
In the Netherlands I organized some festivals, recorded a new CD: “CERCA” and composed for theatre plays and festivals. In 2007 I became a policy-developer for popular music for Kunstfactor, a national institute. It closed in 2012. In 2017 I moved to France. In 2018 I was invited by the University of Arkansas, to give a concert with Latin-American protest songs and I gave a linguistic lecture on Papiamento, the creole language of Curaçao.
In the Ardèche I do very small gigs, solo or duo.
In January 2020 I initiated and opened as an artist the Domburg Jazz Festival in Suriname, and did some gig in Curaçao.
Some more musical adventures:
duo with the late master Lazaro Issaqui:
duo with percussionist Albert van Osch:
I recently picked up lyrical singing again:
sound meditation concerts:
One Woman Latin Band: