Rob Spelberg » News

Back in Groningen

Rob — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:42:48 +0000

Since I moved back to Groningen at the end of January I’ve been very busy. I became the assistant of classical composer Arnold Veeman, who practically lives in the North Sea and there writes beautiful music. I support him by engraving his music, checking chord progressions, etc. As a big band composer and arranger this experience is very valuable to me, because the work I do really opens up my ears to different sounds then I’m used to.

In addition to the work I do for Arnold Veeman, I restarted my funk/soul band Rob Spelberg’s Great Groove, featuring a fine selection of musicians from the North of Holland. Last week we played a first concert at Jazzcafé de Spieghel in the centre of Groningen. It was great fun to play and I’m looking forward to our next gig! Now starts the task of finding those gigs for the band.

I also started to help out the big band of the Prince Claus Conservatory in Groningen, since they’re short of trombone players. It’s nice to meet the guys that are studying now and to see their talents and how they develop it. The band is a learning orchestra, so we play mostly swing classics: it’s fun to play songs such as Moten Swing and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes again after so many years, that’s just incredible music!

Through the conservatory big band I got a gig playing a musical project organized by the Dance Academies of Groningen, Amsterdam and Göteborg and the Prince Claus Conservatory. The band was a combination of classical and jazz musicians, and we reached a high level of music in a very short period of time. I learned a lot about phrasing and sound from playing with classical horn players. All in all a great week, finished with two spectacular concerts last Friday: those musical students are really multi-talented!

Now it’s again looking to the future, I have various projects on my mind and it will be interesting to see how they will work out!

Working with Big Band Friesland

Rob — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:02:13 +0000

Wow, I had a nice evening yesterday, working with Big Band Friesland from Leeuwarden, a very good amateur big band that’s working hard to increase their level of playing on every rehearsal. They have recently bought my piece Fight the Vacansopapurosophobia!!!, and I was very pleased to hear that one of the trombone players could actually pronounce the title! Their conductor Arend Huisman gave me a lot of time to work with the band on the piece, and we made some good progress. I think that’s gonna sound just fine in a couple of weeks.

In addition to this I’ve been asked by the band to write an original composition especially for them, so now the Vacansopapurosophobia can start all over again…

Back in Graz for a long weekend

Rob — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:14:30 +0000

It was great to be back in Graz for a long weekend to work again with my big band there. After dealing with the usual logistic issues (the blessings of being a band leader) we had two great rehearsals: a lot of hard work from the guys in the band, it was a great pleasure! We featured Eva Krisper for a one set concert, for which I arranged some new Tom Waits songs. In addition to that I did King Crimson’s beautiful song Moonchild (from In the Court of the Crimson King), which has a great free section, and a song by Dutch psychedelic band Supersister with the illustrious title: The Schizophrenic Spiral Staircase Gnome (Glooble glooble glub glub glub…). I have to say I feel a bit guilty towards Eva for making her sing so many songs with sad lyrics, but she is so good at them and I have a week spot for this kind of music…

The concert last monday was great: a full house, the band sounded really nice, our soloists kicked ass and Eva was simply beautiful and heartbreaking. I have to give a big thanks to all the musicians who invested their time and energy in playing my music with so much energy and fun, it is a wonderful feeling! Can’t wait for the next project in Graz, for which I already have some special plans.

Website online

Rob — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:59:31 +0000

As of today my website is launched. Feel free to look around and read about my work as composer, arranger and conductor, about projects I am involved in or check out how you can order a conductor, arrangements and compositions!

Working with the Stageband (Groningen)

Rob — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:01:28 +0000

It was a great experience to work for a whole week with the Stageband from Groningen (Netherlands). A great orchestra, and I was really pleased with how well the band worked together with the special guests I brought with me: singer Eva Krisper, bass player Joe Abentung from Austria, trombonist Karel Eriksson from Sweden, and saxophonist Črt Remic from Slovenia. Many thanks to everybody involved and I hope to see you all soon!