Dolf van der Linden

David Gijsbert van der Linden (22 June 1915 – 30 January 1999), known as Dolf van der Linden, was a Dutch conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands.

Biography

David Gijsbert van der Linden, the son of a salesman of musical instruments, was born in Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam. Before World War II, he played in some different bands as a pianist and tried his hand at arranging music for these bands. His colleagues started calling him "Dolf", because he reminded them of a former colleague with that name.

In 1945, he was asked by Dutch authorities who had arrived back from their exile in London to form an orchestra for light music. Picking musicians he knew from all over the Netherlands, he thus managed to create the Metropole Orchestra. Famous names from these early years were Benny Behr, Sem Nijveen (both violinists), Kees Verschoor (clarinetist) and Manny Oets (pianist).

In 1957, van der Linden conducted the winning Dutch entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, "Net als toen", sung by Corry Brokken. In the year after, he and his orchestra accompanied the Eurovision Song Contest which was organised by Dutch TV in Hilversum. Afterwards, he was asked by, amongst others, the BBC to do some work for them. All in all, between 1957 and 1971, van der Linden conducted 13 Dutch Eurovision entries, amongst which two winners (in 1957 and 1959 - the latter song, "Een beetje", written by the pianist of his orchestra, Dick Schallies).

Metropole Orkest

The Metropole Orkest (or Metropole Orchestra) is a jazz and pop orchestra based in the Netherlands, and is the largest full-time ensemble of its kind in the world. A hybrid orchestra, it is a combination of jazz big band and symphony orchestra. Comprising 52 musicians, it is versatile across many musical forms, and is equipped with a "double rhythm section“ - one for pop and rock, and one for jazz based music.

History

The Metropole Orkest was founded in 1945 by Dolf van der Linden at the urging of officials from Netherlands Public Broadcasting, which manages and subsidizes the orchestra. Since then, the Metropole has become a symbol of Dutch culture around the world. The name of the group was suggested by one of the musicians. Dolf van der Linden led the ensemble for 35 years until he stepped down in 1980. He was replaced by Rogier van Otterloo, who led the group until his sudden death in 1988. Dick Bakker held the baton until 2005 when Vince Mendoza took over. He gave the orchestra a more international character. Since August 2013 Jules Buckley took over the position of chief conductor from Vince Mendoza.

Linden

Linden is one of three English names for the tree genus Tilia (also known as lime and basswood). Several of the common names for species within the Tilia genus have Linden in their names. They include:

Other trees include:

Linden may also refer to:

Places

Van der Linden

van der Linden, Vander Linden or Vanderlinden is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Fastbacks

The Fastbacks were a Seattle punk rock band. Formed in 1979 by songwriter/guitarist Kurt Bloch (born August 28, 1960), and friends Lulu Gargiulo (guitar and vocals, born October 12, 1960) and Kim Warnick (bass and vocals, born April 7, 1959), they disbanded in 2001. Their sound mixed a generally punk rock approach to vocals and sound textures with poppy tunes and strong musicianship.

Although these three band members remained fairly constant, they went through numerous drummers, including Duff McKagan, later of Guns N' Roses. MTV's web page on the Fastbacks says that estimates at the number of Fastbacks drummers "range from 12 to 20." For most of the band's last decade, Mike Musburger filled this role, but other Fastbacks drummers before him (or when he took occasional breaks) included Bloch himself, Richard Stuverud (perhaps best known from War Babies, Fifth Angel and Three Fish, side project of Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament), Nate Johnson and Rusty Willoughby (both of whom also played in both Flop and Pure Joy), John Moen (of the Dharma Bums, later of Steven Malkmus's Jicks and The Decemberists), Jason Finn (of the Presidents of the United States of America), Dan Peters of Mudhoney, and Tad Hutchison of the Young Fresh Fellows. Several of these people also served at times as drummers in The Squirrels, a similarly long-lived band, and the Fastbacks' sometime label-mates on PopLlama Records, who bring a similar mix of strong musicianship and punk attitude to even poppier material.