The Dutch band Kapok will be touring the UK from late November Photo courtesy of Dutch Performing Arts

Over the next 14 months, Dutch jazz musicians will be appearing at festivals and on tour in the UK, as part of an initiative instigated by Dutch Performing Arts (Fonds Podiumkunsten). Susanne Moed, Programme Manager, spoke to Rob Adams about what will be happening:

Rob Adams: What is Going Dutch?

Susanne Moed: It’s the biggest-ever celebration of jazz from the Netherlands in the UK and Ireland and it features a range of musicians appearing in festivals and on tour, from earlier this year to the end of 2018.

RA: What are its aims?

SM: We want to create opportunities for audiences to experience a wide range of the musicians who are making the jazz scene in the Netherlands currently a very vibrant and creative place right now. There’s also an historical perspective in having the Instant Composers Pool (ICP) Orchestra on the next tour as the ICP has been in existence for 50 years – it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and yet is still at the forefront of the Dutch and European scenes.

Susanne Moed

RA: How did Going Dutch come about?

SM: Dutch Performing Arts is always looking for ways to help Dutch artists export their work and we met representatives from the Jazz Promotion Network, which is a relatively new but very active body comprised of broadcasters and journalists as well as promoters and festival programmers. From that first meeting we arranged for a series of visits by Jazz Promotion Network members to festivals and events in the Netherlands to see Dutch musicians at work. It was important for both organisations that programmers, especially, experienced musicians playing live to audiences to get a feel for what each musician and group brings to the stage.

The ICP with Han Bennink (left) Photo courtesy of Dutch Performing Arts

RA: How is Going Dutch funded?

SM: Promoters presenting these artists in the UK and Ireland pay the musicians’ fees and all concert costs and may have their own varied sources of funding for their programmes – but Dutch Performing Arts has provided the Jazz Promotion Network with support for Dutch artists’ travel and accommodation costs, a PR programme and administration for the project. Our colleagues in Jazz Promotion Network also have ideas about raising funds in the British Isles in future for collaborative projects between Dutch musicians and your own artists.

RA: What can audiences expect to hear?

SM: We’ve already instigated visits by some musicians. The first outing was in Newcastle, for Jazz NorthEast, who featured a whole weekend programme of leading Dutch improvisers plus English collaborators such as Alexander Hawkins. The pianist Kaja Draksler, for example, made a big impression at Glasgow and Manchester Jazz Festivals this summer and she, the trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and Tin Men and the Telephone, a piano trio that has brought the smart phone into the jazz tradition, will be back for more extensive visits in 2018.

Also, as well as the ICP Orchestra, which is a once seen never forgotten experience and tours from late October, there will be Kapok, who have a very unusual line-up of French horn, guitar and drums and are really causing a lot of excitement among indie rock as well as jazz audiences in the Netherlands and across Europe. They’re touring in England from November 26. In 2018 we also plan to tour, amongst others, the brilliant viola-tablas-guitar trio Nordanians; Estafest, four improvising musicians who have to be seen to be believed; and the pianist Dominic J Marshall, who is actually British but whose trio is among the rising stars of the Dutch scene.”

RA: Where are the tours going?

SM: The next tour – ICP Orchestra – will be going to venues in Nottingham, Southampton, Bath, Belfast, Derry, Dublin and Cork, and Kapok will be playing in Wigan, Altrincham, Bath, Newcastle and Sheffield.

We’re still working on dates for 2018 but the intention is to tour the music as widely as possible, so we hope to include London, Scotland and Wales (as well as Ireland and England again, of course) in the next set of tours. (pp)

Rob Adams is a freelance journalist based in Edinburgh. He is working with Podiumkunste NL on PR for the Going Dutch project

 LINKS: Going Dutch at Dutch Performing Arts / Fonds Podiumkunsten
Going Dutch at the Jazz Promotion Network website