Glenn Gaddum jr. plays bass on “Open Up”, You And Me”, “Angeldelic” and “Throwback”.
Glenn and I met during our time at Conservatory of Amsterdam many years ago. He can make the singer/soloist sound good, but also can solo on an odd meter/uptempo tune and make it sound effortless. He truly lets his bass speak. He never “wastes” notes on his bass and always goes for the essential ones. His musical frame of reference is huge, having grown up in a musical household with a lot of jazz/funk/latin music. He’s quite perfect actually. Well, maybe one thing: I am not the only one who likes him so he’s a busy man, always working with great bands or often jamming at NeL alongside drummers Yoran Vroom or Jamie Peet. I am happy to have caught this fantastic musician on “Saxify” and hope to play with him more often in the future.
More about him: Glenn Gaddum jr. was born in Alkmaar and raised in Amsterdam, Holland. He came from a music-loving family and was influenced early on by his father, who was a piano player (jazz) and the owner of a recording studio, as well as his musical artistic extended family. He displayed an early affinity for jazz music. By the age of fifteen he was already proficient on the bass guitar and piano and had begun composing music. The electric bass, however, was his greatest love and by the age of sixteen, he was working regularly with various bands. Soon thereafter, he was playing bass and writing music for various artists. Glenn also spent a few years as a studio musician. He has appeared as a bassist on all kinds of records. He was a member of a successful group called the Mindmenders in which his sister Patt Riley (Patty Gaddum) was the lead singer. In 1999, they won the 'Popprijs Amsterdam' award and the "Grote prijs van Nederland' award. As the bassplayer of the Sanne van Hek Trio, he won the Dortse Jazz Price in 2003.
He playes and has played with: N'dambi, Ferial Karamat Ali, Jose James, Postman, Patt Riley, Anouk, Frank Mc Comb, Anne Guus Teerhuis, Rebekka Ling, Boris, Sven Hammond Soul, Sanne van Hek, Rose, Raymzter, Dazzled KId, Waylon and so on……
This is the title track called Dark Horse. Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video?Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling. Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener. Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear subject (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a conversation between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception.But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - Glenn Gaddum jr. plays bass on “Open Up”, You And Me”, “Angeldelic” and “Throwback”.Glenn and I met during our time at Conservatory of Amsterdam many years ago.He can make the singer/soloist sound good, but also can solo on an odd meter/uptempo tune and make it sound effortless. He truly lets his bass speak. He never “wastes” notes on his bass and always goes for the essential ones. His musical frame of reference is huge, having grown up in a musical household with a lot of jazz/funk/latin music. He’s quite perfect actually. Well, maybe one thing: I am not the only one who likes him so he’s a busy man, always working with great bands or often jamming at NeL alongside drummers Yoran Vroom or Jamie Peet. I am happy to have caught this fantastic musician on “Saxify” and hope to play with him more often in the future.More about him:Glenn Gaddum jr. was born in Alkmaar and raised in Amsterdam, Holland.He came from a music-loving family and was influenced early on by his father, who was a piano player (jazz) and the owner of a recording studio, as well as his musical artistic extended family.He displayed an early affinity for jazz music. By the age of fifteen he was already proficient on the bass guitar and piano and had begun composing music.The electric bass, however, was his greatest love and by the age of sixteen, he was working regularly with various bands. Soon thereafter, he was playing bass and writing music for various artists.Glenn also spent a few years as a studio musician. He has appeared as a bassist on all kinds of records.He was a member of a successful group called the Mindmenders in which his sister Patt Riley (Patty Gaddum) was the lead singer.In 1999, they won the 'Popprijs Amsterdam' award and the Grote prijs van Nederland' award.As the bassplayer of the Sanne van Hek Trio, he won the Dortse Jazz Price in 2003.He playes and has played with:N'dambi, Ferial Karamat Ali, Jose James, Postman, Patt Riley, Anouk, Frank Mc Comb, Anne Guus Teerhuis, Rebekka Ling, Boris, Sven Hammond Soul, Sanne van Hek, Rose, Raymzter, Dazzled KId, Waylon and so on……Visit his websiteFrank McComb New Morning 2015
