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Isaac....and a lot more!
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Hello everyone,
Let me start with the wonderful news that on the 15th of july in the morning Isaac George van Straalen was born. Named after Isolde her grandfather (Isaac) and mine (George), he's is a healthy beautiful baby boy of 8 pounds. Isolde, Cecilia and I are extremely happy!
A lot has happened the last months; I did tours in Korea, Holland and Germany and I'll be in Japan next month. In between all the Hamel craziness I found time to record with Sensual for their already third album. I can't tell you the title yet, but the album is a killer, an instant classic!
Another cd that I'm very proud of is the debut album of my own duo band Blistered. Together with guitarist and composer Bobby Ruijgrok I've recorded the album 'Europeana'. It contains music that mixes Americana, Brasilian music and pop all in one. Influenced by heroes like Leo Kottke, Cyro Baptista, Mino Cinelu and Ry Cooder the band touches many different styles and genres. The album is due to be released on the 1st of november 2010 and can be ordered at GBWusic.com. You can visit Bobby and me on facebook:http://www.facebook.com/#!/gijs.vanstraalen, http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1012054764&ref=ts
I decided to close down the agenda; please see www.wouterhamel.com for all Hamel dates, www.bandasensual.com for Sensual dates and GBWusic.com for Blistered dates.
All the best, groeten, Gijs
Paiste Cymbals and more
Friday, 25 December 2009
Hi everyone,
Fisrt of all Merry Christmas! Just a quick update: from now on I'll will be endorsing Paiste cymbals and gongs and Hardcase cases. I'm very excited about this great collaboration. My set up is Dark energy 16" crash Mark I ,8" Rotosound, 5 piece cup chimes set, 4" 6" & 8" accent cymbals, 10" signature splash, 10" 2002 splash, 16" Crystal Thin crash, 14" Twenty china, 14" signature Fast crash and a 17" signature Fast crash.(for a ya'll gear lovers...)
Anyway I'll be playing my new set for the first time on the Wouter Hamel concerts in Seoul Korea next week!
jsee you next year, groeten, Gijs
Asia, Decca and more
Saturday, 07 November 2009
Hello everyone! A lot has happened since my last post. I went back to Korea and Japan with Wouter Hamel to play a couple of concerts. In Korea we played two very cool gigs in the Olympic garden, outside for a crowd of very enthousiastic Korean fans! In between those concerts we flew to Tokyo to play at the Tokyo Jazz Festival. The amazing hall, great other artists and bands and 5000 people made us feel humble and thankful. Outside the venue was a Holland-Japan festival with our friends Benjamin Herman and the New Cool Collective, they rocked the house!
Korea, Japan, Gold!
Tuesday, 09 June 2009
It has been a while since I posted something here, but I was away, touring with Wouter Hamel and the band in Korea en Japan. What can I say, the people in Seoul were totally mindblowing! We played after Madeline Peroux at the Seoul Jazz Festival in the main theatre hall of the Sejong Arts Centre in front of 3000 very enthousiastic Korean music lovers. It was magic, the crowd went nuts the minute we set foot on stage! Check out this YouTube video, but make sure you turn the volume down (the crowd went absolutely crazy)!
Japan was wonderful, as always. It was really good to be back in the Billboard clubs in Tokyo and Osaka. Most of the concerts were sold out and it was nice to see some famliar faces again. Arigato Goizamasu! I had some time off and visited the aquarium in Osaka, the only place in the world where they have whale sharks! Beautiful. In august/september we'll go back to Korea to perform a few gigs and we'll also play at the Tokyo Jazz Festival.
Back home I had had an amazing afternoon at Westhoek, a great place where I played together with a group of 30 very enthousiastic and musical people. We also played as headliner at the Jazz in Duketown festival, a showcase in downtown London and at the Jazzfestival in Bergen op Zoom and Ijazz. The biggest surprise was the Gold Record for the album Nobody's Tune already 15.000 are sold in the Netherlands alone. Really cool.
So, please stay tuned, cause this summer is gonna be hot and packed with festivals and great gigs. Hopefully I'll see you there.
Groeten en tot ziens,
Gijs
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