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.

Meet Maarten Ornstein. He plays reeds, and is a composer.
Of today’s music. This music. In his own words: “This is what I do.” Ornstein is known for his work as an improvisor. After all, lots of roles fit this Dutchman who as a soloist joined forces with Audible Lifestream, SfeQ, The Schönberg Ensemble, The Houdini’s, The Ebony Band, various ensembles led by Tony Overwater, and the Martin Fondse Oktemble. He is also composer and arranger for The New Cool Collective Big Band and some of the aforementioned groups. Previously, he recorded with most of them all and many others. As an instrumentalist Ornstein integrates lyrical fluidity and imagination with maximum control on his reed instruments - mostly clarinet, bass clarinet and tarogato (a sort of wooden soprano saxophone of Romanian and Hungarian origin). Both as a player and composer/ arranger he is in command of his notes, and, while he’s on them, controls your state of mind too. Therefore Turtle Records is very proud to present Ornstein’s first. His first solo recording and his first recorded composed contemporary music that is. “I just wrote down what I like”, he states. Ornstein likes the combined sound of bassoon, various clarinets and the nowadays very rare C melody saxophones, sometimes united with percussion and the human voice. Do not call it classical, neo classical, jazz, worldmusic or worse: modern music. With his W.A.R.P. Ensemble Ornstein plays music that is all written down, yet very alive, and integrates various style elements of the here and now. It’s hip, and it’s serious. It’s of today, and it’s timeless. It challenges the listener, and it is a pure joy to listen to.

Wim Kegel (8 December 1967) is one of the most prominent drummers of the Netherlands. He has developed a unique style that combines traditional jazz drumming with a progressive, contemporary and personal approach. Wim started playing drums at the age of six. After studying with his Father Nico Kegel and his first drum teacher, Paul van der Vossen, at age 15 Wim moved on to the Royal Conservatory, in The Hague, where he enrolled in the School for Dance and Music, a special course for young talents. Wim carried on at the conservatory for his Masters in performing jazz. He studied with drum teacher Henk van den Berg, but also with Ack van Rooyen and Frans Elsen. He graduated with honours in 1991. In 1994 and 1996 Wim was able to go to New York and Boston on a grant from the Dutch Fund for Stage Arts (Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten), where he studied with his idols Joe Morello, Bob Moses and Jamey Haddad. The latter introduced him to the frame drum and its accompanying techniques which have remained important for the rest of his career.
With the group Supreme Headquarters Wim Kegel won the 1st prize at the N.O.S Jazzcontest for the best group in 1989. The CD O.P. on which he played with Tony Overwater, Maarten Ornstein, Ack van Rooyen and Ernst Reijseger won the Edison Award in 2001. Over the years Wim has recorded over forty CDs with national and international musicians such as David Liebman, Bob and Chuck Findley, Ron Mc Croby, David Schnitter, Jeroen Manders, Willem van Manen's Contraband, Marc van Roon, Hans Mantel, the group Special Delivery, Tilmar Junius, and the Down Town Jazz Band.
Wim has also appeared in concert with Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny (North Sea Jazz Festival 2004), Bob Berg, Sunny Murray, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin, Ferdinand Povel, George Duke (radio show for Radio Netherlands Worldwide) and many more.
Wim Kegel has performed throughout Europe starting in his teens, and later around the world, especially the Middle and Far East, India, the United States, North Africa and Australia.
His latest project is the Wim Kegel – Marc van Roon Duo which plays a wide range of contemporary jazz music. They recorded their first album drumwise for Challenge Records on their Buzz label, with worldwide distribution. Its release date is April 2015. (www.wimkegel.nl) Other Projects: Braskiri, a group with Bert Lochs on the trumpet and flugelhorn, German pianist Dirk Balthaus, Norwegian tuba player Steffen Granley, and Wim Kegel on drums.
This group just recorded its first album for the German record label Berthold Records. Release date: May/June 2015. (www.braskiri.nl) Ack van Rooyen/Jeroen Manders Quintet with Marc van Roon, Erik Robaard and Wim Kegel. The CD To the Ends of the Earth came out last year for the German Label, Mons Records. Performing at the North Sea Jazz Festival 2015.
Ellington Suites with the Calefax Reed Quintet featuring Tony Overwater on bass and Wim Kegel on drums. Next concerts April/May 2016.
Jungle Boldie, with Maarten Ornstein on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Tony Overwater on bass and Wim Kegel on drums. A trio that has been together for over twenty five years and works on a project base. Their last recording was Jungle Boldie which appeared on the label Turtle Records.
Over the past fourteen years Wim has worked as a drum teacher in Almere and Utrecht. He has been a guest teacher at several conservatories in the Netherlands and runs his own music/drum school Drumwise.