World music NL! Episode 21: The Dutch Jazz Connection.
World music NL! is a series of broadcasts about the variety of music genres from Holland that are included in the wide area of world music. In the Netherlands, there is a number of homegrown unique collections with recordings of non-western and multicultural music. They can be found in the collections of several semi-public institutions and of societies and private persons. Through the years, some compilation CDs have been made by music organisations to promote the music sector.
In this episode you will hear a selection of latin jazz from two promotion albums (double CDs from 1996 and 1997), put together by the SJU (Jazz and Improvised Music in the Netherlands Foundation) and by the jazz department of the NI (Dutch agency).
In 1971, the renewed board of the SJU submitted the ‘Structure plan for Jazz in the Netherlands’ to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Recreation and Social Work. Over the years 1975-1996, the professional jazz music sector – including the stage file – was properly extended. However, the following rewritings of the Policy Document on Culture have had a desastrous effect on the sector. The jazz department of the NI subsidised and organised concerts in theatres and concert halls. Both the SJU and the NI merged into the MCN (Music Centre of the Netherlands). Up to 2013 this was the knowledge and promotion centre for Dutch professional music.
The Surinam Music Ensemble (SME) is founded in 1981 by percussionist Eddy Veldman and bass player Pablo Nahar. The group plays a mix of jazz and traditional Surinam kaseko, redubbed Paramaribo pop. The music also contains influences from kawina – Caribbean folk music – and African music.
Nueva Manteca is an Afro-Cuban jazz formation that builds on music by the great pioneers of the Cubop music. Nueva Manteca expands the original Cubop concept without losing the historical context of this music genre out of sight.
Under the guidance of former welfare worker Vincent Henar a couple of young Surinamese start the music group Fra Fra Sound in Amsterdam. The first concert is in 1981 at the Kwakoe Festival in an Amsterdam neighbourhood. Fra Fra Sound switches from modern kaseko to Paramaribo pop. The group modernises the traditional Surinam percussion traditions like kaseko (dance music), winti (ritual music) and kawina (entertainment music). Switches in strength lead to new ideas. Besides adding jazz elements from bebop and modal jazz, the emphasis shifts to room voor improvisations. Out of all these different music styles, the group creates a truly original and refreshing sound, Afro-Caribbean jazz.
Bacán is a Brazilian fusion group who mix their jazzy sounds with rhythms like samba, maracuta, baiao, funk, reggae and other Latin American rhythms. The name Bacán is Portuguese and means 100% OK. Its members come from various Latin American countries. Singer Lilian Vieira comes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, drummer Luis Luz and pianist Juan Pablo Dobal are both from Buenos Aires, Argentina and the cradle of Jose Luis Lopretti stood in Montevideo, Uruguay. 
The Dutch Jazz Connection (NIJ 1996)
01. Surinam Music Ensemble – #3 Milonga 5:10
02. Surinam Music Ensemble – #4 P.D. 4:24
03. Surinam Music Ensemble – #5 Moanin’ 4:33
04. Nueva Manteca – #13 Opening 3:01
05. Nueva Manteca – #14 It ain’t necessarily so 6:50
06. Nueva Manteca – #15 Young and fine 6:08
The Dutch Jazz Connection (NIJ 1997)
07. Fra Fra Sound – #4 Up there (in yaw’s
atmosphere) 9:14
08. Fra Fra Sound – #5 Paja-gazz 4:58
09. Bacán – #10 Upa 5:35
10. Bacán – #11 El Mar 5:39
