My life in music
Genes
There can be little doubt that music is in my genes. My grandfather, my father and three uncles all played in a local wind band. My mother’s father and his brothers were singers – and soccer players, for which I had no talent, so I concentrated on music. I tried every instrument I got hold on, until at the age of nine, I started to take clarinet lessons with my uncle, solo clarinet with the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Together with my father on the trumpet, I started to gig at local parties, playing whatever people wanted to hear. Everything we did was by ear. At fourteen, I started doubling on the alto saxophone.
Together with some boys from the block I started my first pop band and taught myself to play the bass guitar and the guitar. At sixteen I was in a professional party band playing clarinet, alto sax, guitar and bass guitar. A music career seemed logical, but my uncle successfully pointed out the dark sides of being a professional musician. I started to study history and earned my keep gigging three or four times a week. 
Millies Groove - left to right: Ernst Havermans, Chris Keuken, Karin Baggerman, John van Oorschot
At 21 I started to teach history in secondary school, still having to finish my studies. Music came to a full standstill, until my wife convinced me to join her choir. Shortly after that I graduated. The choir’s conductor left and I was asked to lead the choir. I took singing and choir direction lessons and formed a youth choir to sing pop music. We even made it to a television show with Mike Burstyn.
Then I just had to return to instrumental music. I took up clarinet and sax again and started to study to become a conductor of orchestras. Besides the actual conducting, these studies included harmony & counterpoint, music theory & history and arranging. I lead two orchestras for some time, but I just turned out to be too demanding. In 1984 I suffered from an accident, cutting my right hand little finger tendons. That ended my clarinet and sax career. But I was lucky to have another option.
In my secondary school teachers and students had started a school wind band, directed by me. It performed at sports events, parades and the like. I was made to start playing the instrument that was always lacking: the bass tuba. I took lessons and played it for five years. My finest moments on the tuba were recorded with Dixieland jazz band Foggy Bottom. All arrangements were written by me. One of our best concerts was with the American soprano sax player George Probert.
As the tuba started to bore me, I switched over to the trombone, again taking lessons. I joined a big band where I played with music students, some of whom were later to become leading Dutch jazz musicians, like the drummers Jasper van Hulten and Joost Kroon, and with guests stars like singer Denise Jannah and trombonist Bart van Lier.
Back to bass
After four years on the trombone, I started to develop various strain injuries in my elbows and shoulders. I switched back to the alto sax returning to that same big band shortly afterwards. Unfortunately it was dismantled four years later. Besides playing in that big band I was part of other bands that played various jazz styles. I recorded again with Millies Groove.
Next to this, classical music kept drawing my attention. I bought a soprano saxophone and formed a sax quartet. Many of the arrangements were written by me. Feel free to check out and use my collection of creative arrangements of Christmas music below. I also played with a couple of wind bands and wrote arrangements for them, also to be found below.
Already then I was suffering from hearing loss. I could still play, be in tune and perform with bands if I wore earplugs. But I started to dislike the sound of my own instrument, the sweet voice I had always been so proud of.
Unexpectedly I got a phone call from Rik, one of the boys from the block mentioned above. He had a bunch of guys playing pop oldies . They had been asked to do a street gig three days later, but there was no one to play the bass. I went there and he handed me a Fender Urge. I had been playing bass occasionally, but the last time was at least five years back. Overnight I decided to stop playing sax and go over to the bass guitar. I went to a music store to buy a cheap bass to start with. A fretless Dean Edge 4 caught my eye and I bought it. The next day I drove to the other side of the country to pickup my first amp, a Phil Jones Briefcase, the only bass amp that plays on a battery, as far as I know.
So there I was, out on my first bass guitar gig, watching my left hand like crazy. Feel free to check out all of my technical shortcomings. Good thing you can’t hear me play there…