Last saturday morning I received messages from musician colleagues that Holly has died. Heart attack. He will be cremated this friday, 09-12-2016 at Westergaarde, Amsterdam Osdorp at 12h. You are invited to come by.
During my first year in Amsterdam I was introduced to Holly by Stephan Jankowski, the guitar player of Rosa King. Rosa King & Upside Down was a busy touring band with leading lady Rosa King, a female saxophone player and lead singer originally from Macon, Georgia. She came to Amsterdam in 1971 and they’ve been touring Europe since the 70’s. Holly was not only the backbone of the band on bass but also band leader. Here’s a playlist of Rosa King’s music I made years ago on Myspace.
In around 1999, he also founded the “Soulcatchers”, a soul and blues band. Unnecessary to say that I was a typical conservatory kid: totally unexperienced with performing live but full with principles, at the same time very insecure. I made my first miles, long miles they were, very late hours. Regular gigs in the cafes and bars of Amsterdam and Leiden, private parties and festivals. These gigs prepared me for the following years. Holly put everything aside in order to get the best possible show. In his blunt, honest and headstrong way, sometimes people didn’t understand his choices but Holly always explained to people that it was either his way or no way.. He was very clear about it. Things I only would understand later when I met more musicians who toured a lot and had to trust the loyality of their band members.
When Rosa King passed away in 2000, Holly was devastated. His whole adult life he committed to the band with Rosa (and because Rosa started to play with other people during the last years, he started the Soulcatchers). But from now on he would put all his energy into getting the Soulcatchers to work. I played with the band until 2003, the line up changed a couple of times during the years.
Here are 2 pictures from the initial Soulcatchers during our almost 2 week gig at Nachtcafe, München in 1999. Left: Holly and Roi Straube, Right: Franny Gebhardt, Holly, Robbie Schouten. Occasionally he still would call me for a gig and when I could make it, it was always fun. Young musicians could learn a lot from him, especially discipline, work hard, entertain! Whatever works in order to drive the audience mad! One of the places he frequently used to play at, was Cafe Alto. recently it closed down. There aren’t so many people which are as authentic as Rosa and Holly were. Both were totally unique. The jam session in haven is getting bigger and bigger..
So the first time we played the music from Royalty For Real wasn't in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, but in Bengaluru and Mumbai, all the way in India in 2023!Here you'll see me play Au Privave, Classy Cats and Royalty For Real, together with Timothy Banchet (piano), Marius Beets (bass) and Sven Rozier (drums).Au Privave is a well-known blues by Charlie Parker which I often like to start with, almost like a soundcheck tune. Although most of the time a soundcheck is done I found out it's a good idea to play a tune everybody of the band knows very well so we all can get used to the sound of the stage, the presence of the audience and it also gives the sound engineer the chance to adjust microphones last minute. During the soundcheck, the sound of the room is significantly different because of the lack of audience. All that flesh and clothes work a little bit like a totally empty room versus a room with furniture and carpets, if you know what I mean :-)Acoustics are so interesting and full of surprises.. Anyways.. hope you like it! - Last saturday morning I received messages from musician colleagues that Holly has died. Heart attack. He will be cremated this friday, 09-12-2016 at Westergaarde, Amsterdam Osdorp at 12h. You are invited to come by.During my first year in Amsterdam I was introduced to Holly by Stephan Jankowski, the guitar player of Rosa King. Rosa King & Upside Down was a busy touring band with leading lady Rosa King, a female saxophone player and lead singer originally from Macon, Georgia. She came to Amsterdam in 1971 and they’ve been touring Europe since the 70’s. Holly was not only the backbone of the band on bass but also band leader. Here’s a playlist of Rosa King’s music I made years ago on Myspace.In around 1999, he also founded the “Soulcatchers”, a soul and blues band. Unnecessary to say that I was a typical conservatory kid: totally unexperienced with performing live but full with principles, at the same time very insecure. I made my first miles, long miles they were, very late hours. Regular gigs in the cafes and bars of Amsterdam and Leiden, private parties and festivals. These gigs prepared me for the following years. Holly put everything aside in order to get the best possible show. In his blunt, honest and headstrong way, sometimes people didn’t understand his choices but Holly always explained to people that it was either his way or no way.. He was very clear about it. Things I only would understand later when I met more musicians who toured a lot and had to trust the loyality of their band members. When Rosa King passed away in 2000, Holly was devastated. His whole adult life he committed to the band with Rosa (and because Rosa started to play with other people during the last years, he started the Soulcatchers). But from now on he would put all his energy into getting the Soulcatchers to work. I played with the band until 2003, the line up changed a couple of times during the years. Here are 2 pictures from the initial Soulcatchers during our almost 2 week gig at Nachtcafe, München in 1999. Left: Holly and Roi Straube, Right: Franny Gebhardt, Holly, Robbie Schouten.Occasionally he still would call me for a gig and when I could make it, it was always fun. Young musicians could learn a lot from him, especially discipline, work hard, entertain! Whatever works in order to drive the audience mad!One of the places he frequently used to play at, was Cafe Alto. recently it closed down. There aren’t so many people which are as authentic as Rosa and Holly were. Both were totally unique. The jam session in haven is getting bigger and bigger..
