MAASAKKERS Gerard van
Toeters en Bellen

AI 82500


Aditi
Paesi Bassi

 

"As a little child I always got goosebumps when brassbands "De Vooruitgang" marched the streets of my home village Nuenen. Especially because my father played the cornet so beautifully. Many years later I was offerend the opportunity to work with a brassband for a special project. Director and arranger Carlo Balemans especially created the "KleinBrabantse Harmonie" and together with these musicians and my regular backing band we gave 30 moving concerts between 1999 and the end of 2001. My songs really flourished amongst the smell of copper polish." (Gerard van Maasakkers)

"Toeters & Bellen" (horns and bells) is both the title of a concert Gerard van Maasakkers gave in december 2001 and the title of this dvd. Originally this special project was arranged for just a few concerts during The Parade, a travelling theatre festival in the Netherlands. However, it met with such enthusiasm and all the musicians decided to give 30 more concerts in the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. In december 2001 regional tv station TV8 filmed the last concert. The 15 songs broadcasted spanned the entire carreer of Gerard van Maasakkers and, thanks to the added brass, they got a whole new feeling.

The accompanying documentaries shows behind the scenes preparations and Gerard recalls memories on some of the songs and historic information on his musical carreer that spans 25 years. A biography and a discography complement the dvd. As a bonus there are four extra videoclips.
In two different ways this dvd is a remarkable releases. The first copy was presented to Gerard van Maasakkers at his concert commemorating his 25the anniversary as a singer. And it is the very first release on the brandnew dvd label Aditi [Image].

Biography

Gerard van Maasakkers is born 26 march 1949 in Nuenen, the Netherlands. As a little boy he sings in the church choir, he starts his first band The Spruce Valley Boys on boardingschool and organises 'song festivals' in the neighbourhood. He gets his first guitar when he is 17 en during his studies he is conducting a youth choir en writes the rockmusical 'Plint'.
His first album is released in 1978. "Komt er mer in" ('Please come in') is een album with songs in his local dialect. It sold more then 15.000 copies. In 1980 he decides to become a professional musician and in the following years the albums "Vur de Wind", "Onderwege" and "Spiegelen" are released. He also records an album with christmans songs together with Ut Muziek, a group from Brabant.
In the early nineties he is venturing new roads. Along with his "vaste mannen", his 'regular men', Hein Mandos (piano) and Rinus Raaijmakers (double bass) he presents his first theatre show. His self penned songs are influenced by folk music, but also chansons, latin and jazz can be heard. Four albums are recorded, "Zonder Titel", "Iets Van April", "Boot 7" and "20 Jaar Liedjes, Live".
The album "Pas Op de Plaats" is released in 2000, followed by "Vol Dagen" in 2002 and "Achterland" in 2005.