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..
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. - 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..
