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Information about the Circus Square Jazz Band
HistoryIn October 1975 the CSJB was founded by Paul Zelders who also stood at the base of an earlier CSJB in 1958 in Geleen-NL which existed up till 1970. Since 1975 quite a lot happened in our 7 piece band. In 1986 we lost trombone man and vocalist Noël Poyck, succeeded by Lou Brouns in 1987; we parted from Joop Dings (bj) (he died in 1997) and Paul Beljaars (drs) but then found worthy substitutes in Leon Kamerbeek and Thomas Jähn. Piano man Bert Janssen died in 1996: this was a great loss! Since that time the band played also under the name of The Circus Square Feetwarmers (mostly 4-piece). In 1997 Willem Zeyl joined the CSJB on piano. In January 2000 Leon Kamerbeek passed away, totally unexpected. But in 2001 we got a complete line-up again with Hans-Josef Schuster on banjo and Patrick Heubel on drums. Because of a severe illness Paul Zelders handed over leadership of the CSJB to Jan van Hulten in 2003 and the band then played mostly in a 6-piece-line-up. Sadly Paul Zelders died in 2012. The CSJB owns him a lot, he always was a stimulating force in the background also musically!ObjectivesThe band played so-called traditional jazz, a music form raised in the 20th century by a vast crowd of musicians, now spread around the whole globe. Of course we found our first inspiration in the glorious examples of the Twenties to name but a few like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton but we were also very much inspired by fellow bands like the New Black Eagle JB (Boston, USA) and bands in the "Frisco" style (originated by Lu Watters and Turk Murphy). We also are fans of good New Orleans revival jazz music as played by George Lewis and his many followers. We hope to have taken a modest part in the survival of this fine music in this 21st century!AchievementsThe CSJB made several LP records and musicassettes in the past, all out of production now. The band played on a lot of occasions like the internationally famous Breda Jazz Festival (some 10 odd years in succession; even made 2nd prize in the contest in 1980); in other jazz festivals at The Hague (North Sea JF), Eindhoven, Enkhuizen, Gorinchem, Maastricht as well as in the USA in festivals and jazzclubs in Denver, Central City (CO), St. Louis, Boston, Washington DC, Indianapolis, Chicago, New Orleans (the members are honorary citizens of N.O.) a.o. places; the band also appeared in Canada, Scotland, Danemark, Germany, Switzerland, Honduras and Nicaragua a.o. countries. So there was some travellin'!The last ActivitiesThe band has stopped playing in September 2012 and gave a final concert in Drachten (Fr.), organised by our best fan Anne J. van der Helm. It was a pity that Paul Zelders died in July of that year because the concert could have been some sort of a last post for him! The CSJB has made 5 CD's on the label Feel the Jazz of Spronk Records at Breda. Since the end of 2003 Jan van Hulten has been busy with putting CSJB's ('live) recordings, hitherto unissued, on CD ànd DVD. The results are very satisfactory. See the CD/DVD pages! One can also see many video's of the CSJB on YouTube!ManagementThis was for a long time in the trusty hands of Paul Zelders, since 2003 by Jan van Hulten. Now the band has stopped but all members stayed active in the scene be it in other bands or in helping out where needed. This music will survive! |