Luluk Purwanto & tea Helsdungen Trio has been all over Canada, aboard their bus-scene. This jazz group known on the international scene has joined the 60th anniversary of the Friendship Tower, and has caught two birds with one stone. Behind this grandiose project, which has enabled them to visit 75 cities, ten provinces and three territories, is Rene Van Helsdingen, jazz pianist and the heart of the group. “I wanted to do the tour of Canada in concert, and I have proposed to the organizers of the FriendshipTour to wear their tulips in Canadian cities. They have accepted, which has helped fund the tour. The Canadian tulip festival allows you also to remember the sacrifice of veterans. For this reason, we dedicated each concert to those who have delivered Holland during the war”.
MULTICULTURAL
For over 60 years, the Dutch government has offered several thousands of tulips to the city of Ottawa. This gesture is intended to thank the city for hosting the royal family during the second world war, as well as for allowing the birth of the Princess Marguerite. “We are connected to Canada for this reason, as well as for freeing Holland ” explains Rene.
The very talented four members are also pursuing solo careers, in addition to playing together for over 8 years. Rene’s wife is an acclaimed violinist from Indonesia. The bassist, Essiet Okon Essietest, is a new yorker known in the jazz world and who has major success with the younger female concert goers. “We love each other as a family, said Marcello Pilliteri, percussionist of the group and teacher at the school of music in Boston. With this tour, we lived in a very restricted space, and we haven’t killed each other, there is such harmony! ” And this harmony is reflected in their music, a mixture of classic jazz, improv comedy and world beat.
For several years already, their performances have been on a bus, which is transformed into scene, and also includes a section where the artists live.
THE NWT TOUR
For the whole group, it was a first time up North.
Although for several communities it was a first contact with the jazz, Rene has only good memories.
“We played for 5 people sometimes, and for several thousand in the Montreal Jazz Festival, and it is always a wonderful experience. “He was also touched by the warm welcome of Canadians. “The bus was sometimes in need of repairs, and I have never had to pay anything! Such a tour would never have been possible in the United States . It would have cost us too much”, he adds. This tour began on May 6 in Fredericton and will end on 25 September to Saint-Catharines , in Ontario.
Published in 2004