Thomas Gerretsen Email & Phone Number

All the work I have been doing, gave me a great lot of fun. Being a musician is fantastic. I keep on learning in the different aspects of my job.In studio work, it's fellow musicians who demand your best performance and there's the producer and technicians who want the same. It's a challenge to prepare, to perform and to deliver the best you have at that time.On stage, I feel the same, only there's the audience. People who came to hear and watch you. I think that the best things I ever played, was for live audience. I think it's all the attention that makes me perform better, and stretches my musical horizon.This kind of experiences, I have playing for a dancing crowd, as well as playing for a sitting audience in theaters. I like both settings. Though in a theater I like to work with directors ( Dick Hauser and Paul Kloté ) and technicians ( Matthijs van Nahuis ), because they demand different things from me. Sometimes things I never thought of. A great experience I had recently, was playing with a circus. Timing is crucial, and I loved to work together with artists, to make their act better and better.All this performing is what I really like. In order to promote myself and the groups I play with, I played on the radio and TV as well. Another world. In this path, though, there's also the making of DVD's and clips. Since I can have more influence there, it's easier to relate to. I've been sitting in editing rooms and I got fascinated with the possibilities that modern technique provides nowadays.In my early twenties, I acted in two movies:" Flodder (1)" by Dick Maas, and "De smaak van water" by Orlof Seunke.

My first drum lessons I had at the age of 9 from Fred Krens. When I was 14 I started to play in bands and I played my first GIG at the age of 15. I left my parents' house when I was 18, and I moved to Amsterdam.I started my education at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam in 1984 until 1988. While studying, I met a lot of musicians, who influenced me. Max Roach, Tony Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Bill Bruford, Rick Latham, John Engels and Louis Bellson. Later I met Nenê, Paulo Braga, Carlos Bala and Kiko Freitas. After conservatory I played with the Jazz Inn Big Band, the Twana Rhodes Group ( Instant Gratification ), Banda Brava ( Indonesian tour 1992 - 1993 where I played with Vai Quem Vem ), Xangô ( Swiss tour 1994 ), Arataca ( 1995 - 1997, Turkey tour ) and now with Pater Moeskroen ( since 1996 ) and Georgia Dias & Boca ( since 2007 ).