Keep (it) Swinging: Ziya opens 90th Doctor Jazz Dag

Ziya opent 90ste Doctor Jazz Dag ( Nederlands) Ziya opens 90th Doctor Jazz Dag ( English)

Doctor Jazz Dag aims to a younger generation
ZIYA OPENS 90th DOCTOR JAZZ DAGY
Hans Koert

The 90th Doctor Jazz Dag ( = Doctor Jazz Day), in the past known as the Doctor Jazz Reunie ( = Reunion), was organized on Saturday the 17th of October 2009 at the Hof van Wageningen in Wageningen, a city in the centre of The Netherlands.

Ziya Ertekin ( as Blue Flamingo) (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
The Doctor Jazz Reunions were started in 1965 in Hotel Florida in Boskoop, a small village near Gouda in the western part of The Netherlands, as a half year meeting for collectors of traditional jazz music by Sjaak Van Glabbeek, present during the concerts, sitting on the first row and a 21 years young Ate Van Delden, now the chairman of the organization. He introduced the audience to the first artist to open the afternoon concerts; a 4 hours show with groups like the Aces of Syncopation, the Red Hot Reedwarmers and the Dixieland Crackerjacks. In the morning an extensive jazz record fair was scedulded which has grown to an important meeting place for jazz record collectors in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Ziya Ertekin starts to play his 78rpm records for an audience waiting patiently ( photo Hans Koert)
The series of afternoon concerts was opened by Ziya Ertekin, as Blue Flamingo. Ziya Ertekin is a young Disc Jockey. Like DJ's as Maestro and Jules Deelder, one of the best known record collectors and an icon of jazz to the general public, love to present their selections of danceable jazz lp's to entertain the (most) young audience in disco's and clubs - they released their mixes as compilations on records like Blue Note Trips ( Maestro) or series like Deelder Draait / Deelder Draait Door / Deelder lijft Draaien; Ziya restricts himself to play 78rpm records - his passion. He released last year some of his mixes for Excelsior records, titled Oriental Nitty Gritty - Ritmo & Blues and The Spanish Tinge & The French Connection, he presented today in Wageningen. He introduced a small selection of his shellac record collection to the visitors of the Doctor Jazz Dag. Normaal gaat iedereen dansen op mijn muziek, dus voel je vooral niet bezwaard. (= Normally my audience loves to dance to the music, so you need have no qualms about that), he said, but the audience wanted to listen and enjoyed the music. its activities were limited up to tapping the feet.

The source .......... his 78rpm records ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Thanks to the spoken intermezzo's by Ziya the appearing was more then just playing records. He took the audience to a trip along the Caribbean and started with a fragment of the Jelly Roll Morton Library of Congress recordings as made by Alex Lomax in the summer of 1938, where Morton introduces The Spanish Tinge. Ziya told about his trip to Cuba, where he learned the Cuban music and where he found a lot of 78rpm records. He continued his trip into the Caribbean with records found in Costa Rica and Trinidad. In Trinidad he learned about the music of Lionel Belasco, the great calypso composer. Jo introduced you to his music in a previous blog, titled Lionel Belasco. Ziya finished his musical trip in Congo where he found some 78rpm records he will introduce in his second album to be released next year.

Ziya playing the blues. (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
Ziya finished his short performance with a couple of blues tunes played at the guitar and the banjo, a too short performance.

(photo: Hans Koert)

I love to share with you a fragment of a TV program, titled DJ met een missie by the VPRO Networks series Vals Plat of Ziya and his records. Ate Van Delden explains in this short documentary the importance of Ziya's mission, referring to the title of the documentary: DJ met een missie. Although it is in Dutch, I'm sure you'll like it! ( thanks Henk for pointing me to this).

Het is fantastisch om te ontdekken dat ook jonge mensen deze muziek ontdekken en leren kennen door optredens als van Blue Flamingo; de muziek, waarop hun opa's en oma's vroeger dansten en muziek maakten, was zo gek nog niet en je kunt er prima op dansen en plezier maken. ( = It is good to learn that young people rediscover this music as played by Blue Flamingo and and it learns that you can enjoy it and dance to it, unashamedly, as their grand parents did years ago: Tonny Van Deijl, the hostess of these performances explained. Music is emotion !! - Maybe this initiative is a start to interest a younger generation to this music.. The next Doctor Jazz Dag is scedulded on Saturday the 17th of April, 2010 - I'm sure it's in their iPhones allready.

Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

Become a friend of this Keep Swinging blog and receive a message each time a new contribution has been posted. Please register, if you love to stay informed.