Tony Overwater is an award winning bass player whose sound and unique way of playing have established him as a key player in the European music world. He is a remarkable solo performer and leader of his own projects but also a collaborative and attentive sideman. He is well known for his pioneering work in Arab music.
In 1995 Tony Overwater went on tour with the Yuri Honing Trio through the Middle East, notably Lebanon and Syria, and fell in love with Arab music culture. He met musicians from lebanon, Syria and Iraq and started a long time collaboration with the Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich.
He has been involved in Arab music ever since and developed a unique new playing style on the acoustic bass which allows him to play the microtonality of the Arab scales. He has been studying the maqams (scales), rhythms and songs of classical Arab music. He recorded several albums with Rima Khcheich and eventually became the musical director of her ensemble. Regularly Rima Khcheich and Tony Overwater play duo concerts in which they perform classical Arab music in muwashah style in which the acoustic bass replaces the Oud. This has never been done before and is highly successful at festivals around the world.
Tony Overwater played concerts with many arab musicians among which Moroccan ud player Said Chraibi, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Algerian violinist Kheiredinne M’Kachiche.
He started a salon of Arab music in the Netherlands, Salon Joussour, creating a bridge between musicians from the Middle East and Europe.
in 2009, together with pianist Rembrandt Frerichs and percussionist/drummer Vinsent Planjer, Tony Overwater formed the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio. Three musicians with strong interest and highly developed skills in Arab music and with roots in Western classical music and jazz united in the trio to play with different guest musicians from the Middle East.
Tony Overwater has created the music for many documentaries, among which the Berlin Award winning documentary Justice For Sergei and Om de Oude Wereldzee about Dutch politician Abraham Kuyper.