Windmills and World Music
The Netherlands as musical gateway to Europe
by Stan Rijven
Dutch world cities
Up until the Second World War, the Netherlands was home to a vital Jewish music culture, flourishing especially in Amsterdam, also known as the Jerusalem of the North. This tradition has been undergoing something of a revival since the nineteen nineties, stimulated by the annual Joods Muziek (Jewish Music) Festival now being held. The greatest Yiddish singer of all time, Dutch born Leo Fuld (1912-1997) – who once took Broadway by storm – gave his last performances in Amsterdam. But the new wave is also given fresh impetus by such artists as Klezmokum, Rolinha Kross and Amsterdam Klezmer Band and STriCat, the latter of which combines klezmer with jazz and Balkan influences.
For centuries a global village avant la lettre, Amsterdam received a new impulse from the nineteen sixties onwards with the coming of guest workers, migrants and political refugees. Among these newcomers were the singer Fernando Lameirinhas (Portugal) who developed his own new Lusophonic repertoire and the composer Patricio Wang (Chili), who coupled Andean music to avant-garde contemporary music. From West Africa ex-Osibisa-percussionist Kofi Ayivor and highlife-guitarist Sloopy Mike Gyamfi (both from Ghana), the group Ifang Bondi (Gambia) and singer Mola Sylla (Senegal) all settled in Amsterdam. Noujoum Rai and Railand are the first Dutch raïbands to emerge from the Moroccan community. And world influences also start to creep into serious music. The Atlas Ensemble and Ziggurat bring with them adventurous combinations of music instruments from both East and West. But, Amsterdam also continues to be the foremost breeding ground for new forms of Surinamese and Dutch Antillean music culture, about which more later.
Music and Rotterdam, that other Dutch city, which for a long time used to have the world’s largest harbour, have always had a yen for one another. Those millions of European immigrants passing through on their way to America left their traces behind. It is therefore not surprising that Rotterdam has produced first class artists from their ranks such as Leo Fuld and Malando. Since the middle of the nineteen sixties, Rotterdam has been the capital of Cape Verdean pop music. Labels such as Silva Records and groups as Voz de Cabo Verde, indirectly laid the ground for the success of Césaria Evora.
Rotterdam is also home port for Rabasa, Splash, Gil Semedo and Suzanna Lubrano who conquered the Lusophone world with her Rotterdam productions. In 2004, Lubrano won the 2004 Kora Award, the African equivalent of a Grammy.
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