The renowned Dutch ensemble Musica Extrema has announced its highly anticipated Finland-Sweden tour. This unique musical journey, taking place from September 14 to September 22, 2024, will offer audiences in both Finland and Sweden the …
SLY M is a new band in the Dutch jazz scene. This group consists of musicians who can go in any musical direction, but swinging hard is the main focus. Neo-bop, free, Latin, and everything else …
Ben van den Dungen and the French painter Charles Belle have worked together before. During the concert, the painting ‘My Favorite Things’ was created. Because of the favourable reviews, a second success was inevitable. And so …
A tribute to beloved Art Blakey by legendary group Nueva Manteca on their 13th album. For your consideration at the 2022 Latin Grammy. Viva la música, viva el Latin jazz!
Ben van den Dungen presents his new music programme “The Legacy Of The Blues “The music and the blues of cities like New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis, New York and Nashville mixed with jazz music from …
Musica Extrema will be on tour in Russia (and Belarus) this September and October with the programme Club Vaudeville. Our tour consists of 18 concerts, starting in Minsk, followed by a visit to Kaliningrad, and then on to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The journey continues in Arkhangelsk in the high north, followed by a long train ride south to Ekaterinburg in the Ural. The final concerts of our Russia tour will take place in Siberia, in – among other cities – Barnaul, Tomsk and Novosibirsk. In short, Musica Extrema ‘On the road’.
Musica Extrema will release their new CD ‘Club Vaudeville’ October 2017 right after their Russia tour. Musica Extrema is the new name for the group Tango Extremo. Lately, The group did so many different projects within various genres, that the name ‘Tango Extremo’ no longer represents their music, therefore the switch to ‘Musica Extrema’.
‘Club Vaudeville’ takes you back to the cinematic 1930s – the post World War I era, a time during which jazz, folk, and classical music blended with entertainment, theatre and variété. Club Vaudeville is a collection of songs in French, German and English. ‘Club Vaudeville’ takes you back in time!
With pleasure we present the new Ben van den Dungen Quartet CD ‘2s sessions’.
The CD has been recorded just recently after a tour through the South American countries Argentina and Uruguay. Ben chose to record the CD without any preparations beforehand. He had the idea to create this record in the studio itself. The group had played the tracks so much that there would be no problems recording this CD.
The musical pieces, mostly written by Ben himself, were new to everyone, but after playing them a few times in the studio they were actually recorded. The result is this CD.
‘’Jazz has to be ‘danceable’, and the blues gotta be in it’’, said drummer Art Blakey. It could be the motto for the music that Ben plays with this Quartet. He started his career in the early 80’s with Jarmo Hoogendijk, and only started this quartet 5 years ago. The group is a special combination of personalities that could only bring the jazz together. The musicians blend their musical backgrounds and talent which makes this quartet so fortunate. Completely modern with a ‘’happy feel’’ and 100% pure jazz.
Line-up:
Ben van den Dungen – tenorsax en sopraansax
Miguel Rodriguez – piano
Marius Beets – contrabas
Gijs Dijkhuizen – drums
Tourdates:
5-3-2017 Den Haag – Theater Dakota
12-3-2017 Schiedam – Jazzpodium Waterweg
15-3-2017 Zwolle – Theater Cultuurschip De Thor
21-4-2017 Haarlem – Philharmonie
23-4-2017 Nieuw en Sint Joosland – Theater de Wegwijzer
27-5-2017 Den Haag – De Bordelaise
2-7-2017 Rotterdam – North Sea Round Town
Ben van den Dungen Kwartet – Argentina / Uruguay Tour 2016
November 11th, 2016. The day that the quartet trades the Dutch’ cold winter weather for the sun of Latin America. Ben (sax), Miguel (piano), Steve (bass) & Gijs (drums) will be showing their art for the following 2 weeks to the audience.
The first stop will be the Montevideo Jazz Festival on the 14th and 15th of November. There they will be giving workshops and concerts in Teatro Solis.
Two days after playing the before mentioned shows they’ll be heading to Ushuaia. Ushuaia is known to be the most Southern peak of human society where the gentlemen will be showing their art to the crowd.
Short after, they’ll be heading to the Pre Festival de Jazz (EMU) in La Plata. Of course, Buenos Aires may not lack on this Journey and so the Quartet continues its’ journey to the beautiful capitol of Argentina.
On the 16th edition of the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival the quartet will close off their tour.
Keep an eye on this page to stay up to date of the tour!
In February 2016 Tango Extremo did a tour throughout the whole of Russia. We had the honor to play in cities like Moscow, Novosibirsk, Saratov, Tomsk and Barnaul. During the tour we played with a philharmonic orchestra, gave workshops, did wonderful shows and traveled lots of kilometres by train and bus.
We’re very proud that dutch tv channel TV West made a documentary about this adventure. You can see the documentary below (in Dutch).
Actually, there should be a law against forbidding things.
New York Round Midnight is currently one of the greatest jazz productions for a broad audience and fans of live music. Eleven exquisite musicians from the Dutch jazz scene bring the audience to the golden times of jazz and let them experience how lively and urgent this music nowadays is.
Don’t flirt, don’t drink, brush your shoes and keep playing: those were the golden rules for musicians in the Harlem jazz clubs in the twenties and thirties.
Hardly anybody followed the rules, but that didn’t matter. While alcohol was forbidden the nightlife flourished like never before. A club was considered good only if they had a good jazzband on stage.
The production Swinging Harlem brings the audience deep into the night clubs of Harlem, New York where jazz music was the most important side issue in life. The rivalry and relaxed atmosphere caused the success of exciting music and gave birth to very important orchestras like the orchestras of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. Characteristic musicians like Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller were embraced by the audience.
What was going on in de clubs of Harlem? What was the influence of the maffia and the jewish ‘Kosher Nostra’ on music? What is a flapper girl? And who is the reefer man?
The producers of the successful show ‘New York Round Midnight’ bring a brand new show full of great music, played by famous and talented Dutch jazz musicians in a great atmosphere and illustrated by exciting stories told by comedian and spoken word artist Jeffrey Spalburg and writer and presenter Koen Schouten.
Lineup
Vocals/Spoken word: Jeffrey Spalburg
Vocals: Deborah J. Carter
Storyteller: Koen Schouten (author Jazzhelden, Volkskrant)
Piano: Miguel Rodriguez (Young VIP Tour 2014)
Trumpet: Ellister van der Molen
Alto sax: Rolf Delfos (Sena representative)
Tenor sax: Ben van den Dungen
Tenor sax: Alexander Beets
Double bass: Marius Beets (Sena representative)
Drums: Gijs Dijkhuizen
Director: Monique van Hinten
