All that jazz!

Maarten Visser, saxophone player from Netherlands now settled in Chennai was in Hyderabad recently for a project. In an interview the artist speaks about his passion for music and love of India

Dutch musician Maarten Visser has enthralled audience across the world with his performances. The saxophonist states that he had many relatives on his father’s side, who were into music and most of them used to play stringed instruments.

He would invariably be dragged to a concert every Sunday by his parents and Maarten liked it all. He says that one week there was this improvised band, and he wanted to be that ‘Guy’, the one who was playing the saxophone.

And he says that was the moment when he realised that he wants to play the instrument. Maarten informs that he could not start it too young and he could start when he was around twelve years.

Clarence Clemons was one of his all time favourites. Maarten used to play for the Bruce Springsteen E-Street band. Maarten states that he always used to feel that he must become another ‘Clarence’.

How did Indian music influence you?
Musical influences came very fast in my young days. After school I went to Denmark, I studied more of music and came back to Netherlands and did contemporary music in improvised mode. Then I got exposure to Indian music in a small project.

Hindustani music left me silent and speechless. I did not understand Carnatic music to such extent, that I felt I must know more about it. My friend always told me that when you go to a new place, you first meet the ‘village nut’. You have to wait and look around. The people you need, you will not find them at first glance. And so was my search for the right people to know more about Indian music.

How do you describe your music?
My musical journey shifted from Carnatic music and the ‘raga based’ systems. As I got associated with a few dance productions, I started thinking about ‘developing sound’. I started concentrating on many techniques which bring in special sounds that only a saxophone can make. There could be a ‘turning point’, which needs to be projected via the musical sound.

Can you tell us more about your bands?
I have played with many bands and individual musicians. I can divide my work between maybe commercial work and artistic work. I have also worked with a few Indian musicians and we have had wonderful moments. There is always some excitement or maybe some disaster. Once we were driving and our driver fell asleep. Some universal power saved all of us.

How good has been your musical journey so far?
It’s been rough. Every weekend I am in some part of the country other than home. Sometimes I have very odd flight timings. But one has chosen this path and you have to earn for the family. Since it’s a focused and selected profession, one works hard without getting disturbed.

What is your impression about India?
When I first came, I found everything is different here. Then slowly you start understanding the layers and also the pieces of the puzzle. It’s not a system, but its works. There is lot of ‘last minute tuning’ and everything somehow works. Many times, I suspect something is going to fail or go wrong, but a solution comes up and it just works.