Introducing …

Jan Verwey, producer and presenter of Holland Jazz

Jan Verwey is both producer and presenter of Holland Jazz. This programme
is broadcast live every first and third Saturday of the month from 19.00-20.00.
Lon van den Akker is in charge of the technique. “At the time I was asked by
Willem van Manen, the jazz co-ordinator. Before that I had had one hour of
jazz with Radio Veronica. For two years I worked with colleagues like Tineke
de Nooy, Ad Bouwman and other celebrities. Unfortunately for me they only continued with pop music. And ultimately they were much better at that.
Holland Jazz is a programme in which I play Dutch jazz exclusively. It is all
home-produced as well. I have been doing so since 2005, i.e. for nine years.
And with a lot of pleasure as well.”

Jazzy interior designer

Following his secondary education Jan read an interior design course while
working as a furniture seller. In 1966 he got his diploma, but decided to continue his studies and he read courses in chromatics, retail trade and home furnishing. Subsequently Verwey emerged from salesman to branch manager and later as manager of his own company, which in the meantime consisted of three shops.
He executed various great projects like the Grand Hotel Britannia in Vlissingen,
the County Hall in Middelburg and all kinds of houses for mayors and lawyers’ offices. “During that time my love for (jazz) music had already developed, and I used to play bass and harmonica in several bands, and had started to sing as
well. The broadcasting companies discovered me during my military service.
They invited me, especially as harmonica player but also as a singer. I have
sung solo with almost all radio and television orchestras: from Johnny Ombach
and Klaas van Beek, via the Zaaiers to The Skymasters and the Metropole Orkest. During the seventies and eighties you may have heard me in approximately 150
radio programmes.”

Krasnapolsky

“However, work continued as well. Through a merger Woonstijl BV came into
being. I got my own modern shop with three stories in the centre of Amsterdam
and made all the purchases myself, in Finland, Denmark and Germany, among
other countries. I met Pier de Koe, who was manager of Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky at that time, and he became a very important customer. This resulted in the renovation of the Wintertuin Restaurant towards the end of the seventies and
I gave my recommendations for the hotel. In 1980 I made a switch to business enterprise Bij den Dom BV. There I worked as sales manager/purchasing agent,
I travelled abroad a lot and managed the sales team. The company supplied exclusive fabrics, furniture and consumer design to approximately forty shops throughout the Netherlands. Jan Verwey
In 1985 the curtain came down
on the business, which was
the right time for me to give
all my attention to jazz music.”

Chromatic mouth organ

Jan is one of very few people
in the world who is able to play the chromatic harmonica and belonging to the very best, together with a very famous Belgian and a few less well-
known people.

”To be absolutely clear, I’m talking about the harmonica
with a slide on the side, so you can play half tones as well. It is therefore a
different instrument from the one that blues artists use. What they use is a
diatonic instrument on which you can play only whole tones. I am a self-taught
man and after endless studying I manage to play a few octaves. From 1980 until today I have issued five CDs with various casts and a diversity of projects.
Projects with music from Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk as well as a CD with
jazz standards together with Pianist Bert van den Brink. And after all I hand on
my knowledge to pupils of the Djam Jazz College in Amsterdam. I do the latter
now for the third year.”

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