New Cool Collective
32 videos • 3,804 views • by Dox Amsterdam "From the beginning, our goal was to play clubs filled with screaming girls and sweating masses. We organized our own shows in places where we ourselves went out. We did not want to limit ourselves to jazz venues but rather to become part of the nightlife we loved." Hence the New Cool Collective Big Band spent its first years playing at Amsterdam's Café Meander, before playing every two weeks for three years at the famed nightclub Panama. Benjamin: "Club Meander was usually empty on a Monday night. All it had was a drum kit, a sound system and two turntables. We were given four Monday nights to fill the place and by the third the place was packed. That's how our legendary Big Mondays began..." Since 1994, the band has played hundreds of sold-out concerts across the Netherlands. They have played pop festivals like Lowlands, Roskilde and Sziget, and clubs in Istanbul, Vienna, Uganda, Kenya and Russia—not to mention jazz venues like the London Jazz Café and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Whether it was with eight or nineteen members, it was always a dance party no matter where they went or for whom they played. Benjamin: "New Cool Collective was consciously made up of all sorts of musicians from different scenes and all those styles can be heard in our music. That's why we don't just play for politely-seated jazz lovers." "Whatever we do, we try to make it true. Our shows are unique, with our sets usually stretching to over two hours. We don't stop until everyone has gone completely insane." Arranger/keyboardist Willem Friede reformulated the band's repertoire for a nineteen-piece big band, resulting in a catalogue of over 250 self-written big band arrangements. "It's the same with the NCC Big Band: it's all about the vibe and not about how precisely everyone plays their part," observes Benjamin. To make the album, a selection was made of not previously recorded material from a variety of live shows. And so after much request, the New Cool Collective Big Band party is now finally on CD. "This CD gives a good impression of how we approach our live shows. And we'll be promoting it by playing all the big pop halls of the Netherlands, and what you hear on the CD will be what you get." In addition, Big Mondays will be returning to Amsterdam's Sugar Factory and Rotterdam's Rotown. Welcome back to the nightlife!