After yesterday's concert with the uncomparable Rembrandt Frerichs Trio and Benjamin Glorieux during The Hague's Crossing Border Festival I finally get to rest again.
I had such a great and inspiring three weeks with this group.
It was fantastic to come back from another year of illness and immediately have such a series of concerts ready for me to play. It also was a test, a physical and mental one. Can I play three to four concerts a week already? Can my body deal with that? Can I mentally handle the stress?
Yes and no.
I am writing this while I am sick, the common cold, but it still hits me harder and more often than a couple of years ago. My body is saying 'Enough! Please sit down and breath.'
On the other hand I did play the concerts, and I played well. The performances gave me so much energy and inspiration. My chops are back (on all saxes! I had the quartet on stage :-), but more importantly, this kind of music making is what I need and want from music. This is it. These guys, this way of handling music, improvisation, playing composed notes the best we can, finding the right balance between being constructively critical and positive remarks, this was just perfect.
Thanks guys!
Rembrandt Frerichs Vinsent Planjer Tony Overwater Benjamin Glorieux
And also
Hugo Ticciati Klaartje van Veldhoven
zaterdag 3 november 2018
woensdag 17 oktober 2018
Deep Purple and autumn is coming!
Check this album. It is really worth it.
This is my 6th week of working 'normally' again. Until this summer I was rehabilitating. At least I gave myself the time to do so. I am an independent musician so I basically determine my own hours. I still have to take care and sleep enough. I already had yet another bacterial infection some weeks ago. This time I was more in time with antibiotics. I also have to sleep enough. At least 9 hours per night seems to be working for me. I can sleep less, but I have to take care afterwards.
Autumn is finally on its way. We had a great summer with high temperatures. But the farmers weren't happy about the rain: there was none.
Coming weekend some concerts with Rembrandt Frerichs: https://www.songkick.com/artists/1270577-ties-mellema/calendar
Really looking forward to these concerts with these fantastic musicians! We will play some jazz, classical, renaissance music... Basically just anything!
zaterdag 17 maart 2018
I just had an unexpected passionate conversation about classical music
I never published this blog, which I wrote during my stem cell therapy. I was uncertain about it. But reading it again I think I actually wrote a good piece. Here it is:
________________________________________________
I just had an unexpected passionate and coherent conversation about classical music with one of my nurses in the hospital where I am residing while my resistance is too low to be outside due to my stem cell transplant.
It all began two months ago. I realized that there is so much lying going on in classical music. A lot of times it's too much about persons, about personalities, anything, but not about the music itself. I got cynical. I wanted to get out of the music world. I didn't want to join in anymore. Maybe do a different study and find a different profession. This lasted a week. The realization that I could just stop and do something else set me free and made me not think about it anymore.
But this period left something in me. Something I hope to be able to use when I come back again in 2018. I am not sure how yet. But I know my vision on music has broadened yet again.
The nurse came in and asked me why I wasn't watching Maestro, a popular television in which famous Dutch people try to conduct a professional orchestra, judged by three musical experts. With sometimes hilarious results and sometimes touching beautiful moments where you would least expect them.
But the thing is. I don't watch it, I zapp by it, and go on. This program has an obvious good side. It invites people to find out about classical music, music that they might not know and broaden their horizon. But t's really not about the music. It's entertainment with the goal to get people to listen to a seemingly dying art form. And that's fine. But I need music. The aficionado maestros study their music with a conducting teacher (the magnificent Bas Pollard! Someone that is 200% about music!) and perform their theater show for the jury and the orchestra. The jury gives them marks based on how well they lead the orchestra. And some people are remarkably musical, I have to admit!
But is this it? Is this classical music? At least 100 year old music performed in clothing that is the same age with an orchestra. No, of course not. I am a 'classical' musician as well. I largely gave up performing in orchestras when I was asked one time to play 'less musical' to not stick out so much.
Classical music is so much more. It is 500 years of music history. And it consists of so much more than just orchestras, operas and old (genius) composers. 5 years ago I started a Twitter thing to find a different name for classical music. Like Floris Kortie last week in Podium Witteman I think the term is not good enough. It refers to old music, a stuffy, boring, and old-fashioned scene. But in the end I couldn't find a new term. I think it's best to refer to music in general. Now that I think about it. Maybe classical music should just die, finally! And then incorporate it in the music world as a whole. Could you imagine? Stages where one evening the popular rockband De Staat performs, the next night a saxophone orchestra plays Bach and the following week there's a Beethoven Festival. Wouldn't that be fantastic? No more labels. Just music.
Don't get me wrong. Classical music as entertainment is fine. Of course. I read Dan Brown. Good books, easy reading, short chapters. But I also read Reve and Grunberg. There are also radio and tv shows that focus mostly on substance. But it's less likely that these shows will have a substantial audience.
And that is for the most part because of education. When I brought my kids to school for the first time, the principal thought it was a good thing when he told us that their education focusses on social skills, mathematics and language. And of course these are important things, but there's so much more. When I was in school we got very thorough literature education. Now I know why Dan brown is entertainment (and it is excellent entertainment!) and why Reve is true literature.
But we never learned this with music. When is music entertainment, and when is it 'art music'....?
Dangerous things to ask, especially in these days. In a time when low art becomes high art and the other way around. And that's all fine. But there is music that is just music, honest music.
________________________________________________
I just had an unexpected passionate and coherent conversation about classical music with one of my nurses in the hospital where I am residing while my resistance is too low to be outside due to my stem cell transplant.
It all began two months ago. I realized that there is so much lying going on in classical music. A lot of times it's too much about persons, about personalities, anything, but not about the music itself. I got cynical. I wanted to get out of the music world. I didn't want to join in anymore. Maybe do a different study and find a different profession. This lasted a week. The realization that I could just stop and do something else set me free and made me not think about it anymore.
But this period left something in me. Something I hope to be able to use when I come back again in 2018. I am not sure how yet. But I know my vision on music has broadened yet again.
The nurse came in and asked me why I wasn't watching Maestro, a popular television in which famous Dutch people try to conduct a professional orchestra, judged by three musical experts. With sometimes hilarious results and sometimes touching beautiful moments where you would least expect them.
But the thing is. I don't watch it, I zapp by it, and go on. This program has an obvious good side. It invites people to find out about classical music, music that they might not know and broaden their horizon. But t's really not about the music. It's entertainment with the goal to get people to listen to a seemingly dying art form. And that's fine. But I need music. The aficionado maestros study their music with a conducting teacher (the magnificent Bas Pollard! Someone that is 200% about music!) and perform their theater show for the jury and the orchestra. The jury gives them marks based on how well they lead the orchestra. And some people are remarkably musical, I have to admit!
But is this it? Is this classical music? At least 100 year old music performed in clothing that is the same age with an orchestra. No, of course not. I am a 'classical' musician as well. I largely gave up performing in orchestras when I was asked one time to play 'less musical' to not stick out so much.
Classical music is so much more. It is 500 years of music history. And it consists of so much more than just orchestras, operas and old (genius) composers. 5 years ago I started a Twitter thing to find a different name for classical music. Like Floris Kortie last week in Podium Witteman I think the term is not good enough. It refers to old music, a stuffy, boring, and old-fashioned scene. But in the end I couldn't find a new term. I think it's best to refer to music in general. Now that I think about it. Maybe classical music should just die, finally! And then incorporate it in the music world as a whole. Could you imagine? Stages where one evening the popular rockband De Staat performs, the next night a saxophone orchestra plays Bach and the following week there's a Beethoven Festival. Wouldn't that be fantastic? No more labels. Just music.
Don't get me wrong. Classical music as entertainment is fine. Of course. I read Dan Brown. Good books, easy reading, short chapters. But I also read Reve and Grunberg. There are also radio and tv shows that focus mostly on substance. But it's less likely that these shows will have a substantial audience.
And that is for the most part because of education. When I brought my kids to school for the first time, the principal thought it was a good thing when he told us that their education focusses on social skills, mathematics and language. And of course these are important things, but there's so much more. When I was in school we got very thorough literature education. Now I know why Dan brown is entertainment (and it is excellent entertainment!) and why Reve is true literature.
But we never learned this with music. When is music entertainment, and when is it 'art music'....?
Dangerous things to ask, especially in these days. In a time when low art becomes high art and the other way around. And that's all fine. But there is music that is just music, honest music.
woensdag 25 oktober 2017
Update: three chemo's, now what?
Dearest friends,
I've gotten some comments from friends that I haven't written on my blog while I promised to keep everyone posted through the blog. The thing is, it's takes up so much energy to round off my thoughts, and to write them in words. In 2015 I had sort of a plan. Now I am empty. Living by the day. Not knowing where I am going. I am working hard, yes. Dealing with the effects of the chemo, mostly the overwhelming nausea. But also fatigue and mood swings. And again this is a period of looking back. Where can I go further, where stood I step back? Now's not the time to take decisions. But I feel this is the time to play like a kid in the moments that I have that are manageable. Listen to some music, trying to read (lack of concentration again!), transcribing some solos, experimenting with electronics. All small scale so far. But I guess I need something to hold on to.
On the practical side:
Last week was my last chemo. As the stem cell nurse explained it to me: these chemo's are to take the weeds out of the garden. On 7 December they will burn down the whole garden with a extra heavy chemo to be as sure as possible that they will get all of the cancer cells. From this chemo my body cannot recover: enter stem cells. I harvested them some weeks ago. They are cancer free, because Hodgkin cancer does not enter that area of the body typically. After that this chemo and stem cell transplant, which will take a week, I will be transported to a hospital room with over pressure because for some weeks I will not have any resistance whatsoever. I can get visitors, but nobody should be ill.
In January this is all over and it's time for rehabilitation.
Will try to keep everyone posted!
Cheers guys!
I've gotten some comments from friends that I haven't written on my blog while I promised to keep everyone posted through the blog. The thing is, it's takes up so much energy to round off my thoughts, and to write them in words. In 2015 I had sort of a plan. Now I am empty. Living by the day. Not knowing where I am going. I am working hard, yes. Dealing with the effects of the chemo, mostly the overwhelming nausea. But also fatigue and mood swings. And again this is a period of looking back. Where can I go further, where stood I step back? Now's not the time to take decisions. But I feel this is the time to play like a kid in the moments that I have that are manageable. Listen to some music, trying to read (lack of concentration again!), transcribing some solos, experimenting with electronics. All small scale so far. But I guess I need something to hold on to.
On the practical side:
Last week was my last chemo. As the stem cell nurse explained it to me: these chemo's are to take the weeds out of the garden. On 7 December they will burn down the whole garden with a extra heavy chemo to be as sure as possible that they will get all of the cancer cells. From this chemo my body cannot recover: enter stem cells. I harvested them some weeks ago. They are cancer free, because Hodgkin cancer does not enter that area of the body typically. After that this chemo and stem cell transplant, which will take a week, I will be transported to a hospital room with over pressure because for some weeks I will not have any resistance whatsoever. I can get visitors, but nobody should be ill.
In January this is all over and it's time for rehabilitation.
Will try to keep everyone posted!
Cheers guys!
zondag 17 september 2017
"Hastings cop holding bone marrow drive in memory of his dad, jazz legend Michael Brecker"
All of a sudden this is so much closer to me than it ever was:
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/greenburgh/2017/09/16/hastings-cop-holding-bone-marrow-drive-memory-his-dad-jazz-legend-michael-brecker/659218001/
The son of Michael Brecker, Sam Brecker (a police officer) will do a bone marrow drive. People can test their bone marrow with a simple swab of the cheek. If there is a match they will be asked to donate.
Michael Brecker is one of the reasons I play saxophone. Because of his music I felt like I knew him. I met him once when I was in puberty at the North Sea Jazz. I was a huge fan. For me Brecker was like Michael Jackson or Madonna to my class mates.
And then he died in 2007 from a form of leukemia. He needed a stem cell transplant but couldn't find a suitable donor.
I will receive a stem cell transplant in November, from my own bone marrow, which will be harvested in October.
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/greenburgh/2017/09/16/hastings-cop-holding-bone-marrow-drive-memory-his-dad-jazz-legend-michael-brecker/659218001/
The son of Michael Brecker, Sam Brecker (a police officer) will do a bone marrow drive. People can test their bone marrow with a simple swab of the cheek. If there is a match they will be asked to donate.
Michael Brecker is one of the reasons I play saxophone. Because of his music I felt like I knew him. I met him once when I was in puberty at the North Sea Jazz. I was a huge fan. For me Brecker was like Michael Jackson or Madonna to my class mates.
And then he died in 2007 from a form of leukemia. He needed a stem cell transplant but couldn't find a suitable donor.
I will receive a stem cell transplant in November, from my own bone marrow, which will be harvested in October.
vrijdag 15 september 2017
Round one of the second level
Dear friends,
I am at home right now. Watching the worst movie ever probably 'Ghost in a shell'. I figured while I have the time I might as well watch some movies and catch up. I wasn't going to write. I wanted to share my thoughts when I had something positive. A new reason for all of this. But this movie is just so bad that I wanted to do something worthwhile.
The first time I got lymphoma I used this period of chemo and recovery to go into new directions, to think about what I had been doing and if I wanted to continue on this path.
Last Wednesday I started immunotherapy, and until Saturday I had chemotherapy. Now I am recovering and waiting for my body to get into a good enough shape for the next chemo. In the mean time I have been on the look out for a new reason. But I can't find one. I have to wait until this is all finished and keep an open mind. Even more than before. Because my body might change too much because of the chemo. Or not... I can't tell.
All I know is that I have to deal with this treatment day by day. Deal with the nerve and ear damage that might take place. Deal with the overwhelming nausea, the muscle loss and cramps. Trying to exercise, eat and sleep.
I will try to keep playing the saxophone. But at the same time, I am not sure whether I will still play sax in one year.
To be continued....
All the best,
Ties
I am at home right now. Watching the worst movie ever probably 'Ghost in a shell'. I figured while I have the time I might as well watch some movies and catch up. I wasn't going to write. I wanted to share my thoughts when I had something positive. A new reason for all of this. But this movie is just so bad that I wanted to do something worthwhile.
The first time I got lymphoma I used this period of chemo and recovery to go into new directions, to think about what I had been doing and if I wanted to continue on this path.
Last Wednesday I started immunotherapy, and until Saturday I had chemotherapy. Now I am recovering and waiting for my body to get into a good enough shape for the next chemo. In the mean time I have been on the look out for a new reason. But I can't find one. I have to wait until this is all finished and keep an open mind. Even more than before. Because my body might change too much because of the chemo. Or not... I can't tell.
All I know is that I have to deal with this treatment day by day. Deal with the nerve and ear damage that might take place. Deal with the overwhelming nausea, the muscle loss and cramps. Trying to exercise, eat and sleep.
I will try to keep playing the saxophone. But at the same time, I am not sure whether I will still play sax in one year.
To be continued....
All the best,
Ties
donderdag 7 september 2017
I cancelled 40 concerts last week: What happened?
Dear friends,
Right now I am in the hospital. The cancer is back. After some really tense weeks I was diagnosed again with lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. This is relatively favorable. My chances for the first time in 2015 were 90%. For the remaining 10% they are 70%-80% after a relapse.
D,
At the time I am writing this I am in the oncology section of the OLVG West Hospital in Amsterdam West for four days to give me immuno- and chemotherapy. The first time, in 2015, I never thought about being part of the 10% that has a relapse. I saw the cancer as a sort of super flue, with a compulsory sabbatical. I turned the situation around in my head and made it into something positive. A chance to purge myself. And that is what I did. I thought a lot about the stuff I did. I made choices and tried to go on in a different way. The coming year reflected these choices. I had concerts with my good friends Rembrandt Frerichs, The Four Baritones, Ernst Daniel Smid, Remy van Kesteren, Martin Fondse, and much more!
I have the biggest class at the conservatory in Tilburg I have had since I started, with really good musicians from all over the world. I was looking forward to working with them so much. Luckily I found an excellent substitute, Juani Palop.
But during summer holiday I found a bump on my chest. After some tense weeks it turned out to Hodgkin's disease again. Which was relatively good news. The old cancer could also have developed into a less favorably form of for example non-Hodgkin.
Of course it is a big disappointment. I can hardly start to describe what I and my family and friends feel at this time. I will get three times three weeks of chemo- and immunotherapy, of which the first four days I will be hospitalized. Then, if all goes well, in the second half of November I will get a stem cell transplant. They will give me back my own stem cells that they will harvest after the second chemotherapy. If there are no complications I will be done before Christmas. Then recovery. And trying to get back in the game.
I will keep playing the sax during the therapy, like last time. And again I will be on the look out for stuff that I like to play even more. But this time I can't attach a reason to all of this, yet. I will keep you posted.
Thanks and stay safe, Ties
Right now I am in the hospital. The cancer is back. After some really tense weeks I was diagnosed again with lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system. This is relatively favorable. My chances for the first time in 2015 were 90%. For the remaining 10% they are 70%-80% after a relapse.
D,At the time I am writing this I am in the oncology section of the OLVG West Hospital in Amsterdam West for four days to give me immuno- and chemotherapy. The first time, in 2015, I never thought about being part of the 10% that has a relapse. I saw the cancer as a sort of super flue, with a compulsory sabbatical. I turned the situation around in my head and made it into something positive. A chance to purge myself. And that is what I did. I thought a lot about the stuff I did. I made choices and tried to go on in a different way. The coming year reflected these choices. I had concerts with my good friends Rembrandt Frerichs, The Four Baritones, Ernst Daniel Smid, Remy van Kesteren, Martin Fondse, and much more!
I have the biggest class at the conservatory in Tilburg I have had since I started, with really good musicians from all over the world. I was looking forward to working with them so much. Luckily I found an excellent substitute, Juani Palop.
But during summer holiday I found a bump on my chest. After some tense weeks it turned out to Hodgkin's disease again. Which was relatively good news. The old cancer could also have developed into a less favorably form of for example non-Hodgkin.
Of course it is a big disappointment. I can hardly start to describe what I and my family and friends feel at this time. I will get three times three weeks of chemo- and immunotherapy, of which the first four days I will be hospitalized. Then, if all goes well, in the second half of November I will get a stem cell transplant. They will give me back my own stem cells that they will harvest after the second chemotherapy. If there are no complications I will be done before Christmas. Then recovery. And trying to get back in the game.
I will keep playing the sax during the therapy, like last time. And again I will be on the look out for stuff that I like to play even more. But this time I can't attach a reason to all of this, yet. I will keep you posted.
Thanks and stay safe, Ties
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