Windmills and World Music
The Netherlands as musical gateway to Europe
by Stan Rijven
Dutch folk
The way in which ‘global music’ has been received ‘locally’ in the Netherlands, can be clearly seen in the reception of all kinds of music styles. The urban cultural environments of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam played a prominent role in this process. The native music culture that had been handed down in the rural areas had all but disappeared by the middle of last century, though not completely, partially thanks to a folk music revival.
As in the rest of Western Europe, the Netherlands saw the rise of an indigenous folk movement at the end of the nineteen sixties. Alongside interest in British and Irish folk music, many bands appeared who played Dutch language repertoire of yore. Groups such as Fungus, Perelaar and Wargaren were able to draw from material which Ate Doornbosch had recorded and collected in the disappearing countryside. This Dutch Alan Lomax played his field recordings during his radio show Onder de Groene Linde, (Under the Green Linden Tree) that was broadcast once a week from 1957 to 1994. A selection of the five thousand songs he recorded is being prepared in a ten CD box set.
Folksinger Cobi Schreijer was another key figure. In the sixties, her club De Waag in Haarlem hosted such players as Paul Simon and Pete Seeger, as well as giving young Dutch talent a chance. By the beginning of the eighties Dutch folk music had reached its peak and was being supplanted by Dutch language pop music. A compilation survey of the best of Dutch Folk was released on CD last year entitled: Dutch Rare Folk. (5)
From tango to Django
After a reluctant initial reception, ballroom tango became widely popular in the nineteen thirties thanks to Malando, alias Arie Maasland. His compositions Olé Guapa, Con Sentimiento and Noc he de Estrellas were hits worldwide; his 26 piece orchestra was a household word from Finland to Japan..
Even though Anglo-American pop music later made the tango seem old-fashioned, in the guise of nuevo tango , it has come back with a vengeance. Inspired by Astor Piazzolla the nineteen eighties saw the formation of tango ensembles in the Netherlands such as Tango Cuatro and Sexteto Canyengue. In the meantime tango salons and festivals have been shooting up like mushrooms. Tango is so popular now, today one can study tango compositions and the bandoneon at Rotterdam Conservatory. A tango salon is also being organized on any given weekend throughout the year.
Eastern European gypsy orchestras dominated Dutch night life between 1930 and 1960. Especially in the seat of government, The Hague, with its aristocratic ambiance, the Lajos Veres, Gregor Serban, Toki Horvath and Tata Mirando orchestras stole the show. But they too succumbed to the advancing tide of pop.
In the nineteen nineties a new generation arose who played gypsy music though this time in the Western European tradition. The Rosenberg Trio caused a sensation with its gypsy-swing; their guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg was touted to be the next Django Rheinhardt.
Ten years on, his nephew Jimmy Rosenberg holds even greater promise, though his career temporarily stalled because of drug addiction problems.
The Balkan beat rage that has swept over Europe since 2006 has also reached the Netherlands and is catered to by such festivals as Contrabanda and by such groups as Mala Vita, Tarafs de Holanda and Carlama Orkestar.
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