It’s about time we talked about the Netherlands.
For many people (well, North American people) the Netherlands is just another country that sits somewhere in their fuzzy mental map of Europe, in the same general area as Denmark, Holland, and Wherever-It-Is-That-Dutch-People-Live.
Which is funny, because it turns out that two of those places I just mentioned, Holland and Wherever-It-Is-That-Dutch-People-Live, are the same thing as the Netherlands.
If you’re confused, that’s okay. It’s a bit of a confusing country.
The capital is Amsterdam. But it’s also The Hague. Their flag is red, white, and blue. But if you’ve ever seen their fans during the World Cup, you know that the national colour is Orange. And part of their border with Belgium is enough to make map-makers take early retirement.
But as strange and quirky as the Dutch may be, they produce some excellent people. There are the artists, from Vermeer to Van Gogh to Escher. There’s the teenager who sailed around the world. And there’s some beautiful music; especially jazz.
We featured a Danish jazz band just a couple weeks ago, and if the duo Bremer/McCoy is any indication of what the next generation is bringing to the table, we may soon associate the Netherlands more with jazz than we do with tulips.
Which is fine, because in keeping with the country’s quirks, tulips aren’t native to the Netherlands anyway.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. I love it when bands cover the less-obvious songs in another act’s repertoire. OutKast’s 2003 magnum opus Speakerboxx/The Love Below is filled with more likely candidates for a jazz cover, but rather than phone it in with “Hey Ya,” Bremer/McCoy dug deep into the double album – track 34 out of 39 – to find an oddball song they could make their own.
2. The descending chords that open the song make me think of a Dutch windmill, slowly coming to a stop.
3. The piano and bass share the spotlight nicely, each taking the melody in turns. Much cleaner and seamless than that pesky Dutch-Belgian border.
Recommended listening activity:
Writing a letter to your local politician demanding better bike lanes.