Glasgow Jazz Festival Presents: Lolanders The Blue Arrow Jazz Club, Glasgow

Six fascinating musical friends and individualists, this first formal Going Dutch collaborative project - which premiered at Celtic Connections, Glasgow on 22 January 2019 - brings Scots saxophonist/piper Fraser Fifield together with Dutch viola maestro Oene van Geel and their chosen instrumentalists – a meeting of minds and sounds that marries the cool invention and wit of Amsterdam and the Netherlands with the passion and traditions of Scotland and the Highlands, with more than a hint of the Asian diaspora. LoLanders are Oene van Geel and Fraser Fifield with Aberdonian Graeme Stephen (guitar) and Glaswegian Sodhi Deerhe (tabla) and Dutch partners Mark Haanstra (bass guitar) and Udo Demandt (percussion).

Keith Bruce’s review in the Herald said of their Glasgow premiere in January:

There was groove-aplenty from the LoLanders - no matter whose composition was on the music stand, these experience hands could mine a riff for all it was worth. This was the finest context for Fifield’s talents I have heard, and communication between him and the viola and vocals of Oene Van Geel was the igniting spark, mirrored in Deerhe’s combination with percussionist Udo Demandt, and Stephen’s lick-trading with bassist Mark Haanstra.’