The seventeenth Singer Songwriter Cirkel Haarlem Open Mic Night on the night of September the 5th at café Briljant in Haarlem was a special one. It was the last Open Mic in Briljant as it is closing her doors. This inspired many artists to come and compose new material for the occasion. The host of the night Jasper Schalks quickly calculated it would take till dawn to let everybody play three songs.
Rob Wtenweerde opened the evening strong. Gert-Jan Kooren had announced he would bring his double bass and Tes was the first one to put him to ‘work’. The Early Spring crossed a border to join the party. A few had noticed the theme was the moon. Pien van de Rest added Blue Moon to her jazzy nightclub repertoire. For Gwan Brandhorst music is about collaboration. He started together with Judith Wesselius and continued with Gert-Jan to support Joost Verhagen. Dan German wrote a song for the evening and the fact the pub will close at the end of the month. It contained an invitation to join in on the piano and Niels van der Weiden didn’t let that opportunity slip by. Roel Kessels shared a song he wrote especially for a colleague when she stopped working at their bar. A MysterE, like Tes, already played at the early years of the Open Mic Night at café Briljant and wouldn’t pass the opportunity to play there one more time. Judith Wesselius brought her dad along and fellow Grey Lotus musician Daan Arisz. The three did two very impressive covers of songs by Low. Florentien Mol gathered everybody around Betsy the piano.
To ensure dawn would not turn into lunch before everybody could play the number of songs was restricted to two. Personally I feel robbed of a one song by each artist who played after that decision. I hope they all come back at a future open mic. The Moody Orchestra did something very special. He squeezed a happy song into his two song set! Stefan Breek, Maya Lizz and Johan Keeman did great. Gert-Jan Kooren got everybody’s attention by reading a poem about the word brilliant. This was a brilliant idea and a he did it… wel… brilliant! Dutch Cassidy teamed up with Gert-Jan Kooren and Jan Willem Reitsma. He also wrote a song about Luna! The last song of the night was written on the evening itself. Niels arrived with a few lines of text. With a pub full of songwriters and wordsmiths the lyrics were completed quickly. He sat at the piano and gave a brutal performance while composing the music on the fly.
The Open Mic Night ended in the traditional way with an improvised performance of the improvisation formation To The Wolves with: Niels, Martijn Comes, Jasmijn Helweg, Joost, Rob Alphenaar, MacHielo on guitar in the light of the fridge, Gwan, Tes and Gert-Jan Kooren. Yes, I missed one name and it will be added as soon as I know who improvised on guitar besides MacHielo
If you would like to see what you missed or enjoy the evening again check the video of the life feed by Stagefinder: Click Here
The best way to enjoy the photo’s is to click on the ‘View full size’ link at the bottom right of the screen below the photo.
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