November 2024

Now that the year is almost to the end and the holidays are coming up, I would like to take a moment to let you know that 2024 marks 45 years that I've been working as a professional musician. 

I was 12 years old when I got my first paid job as a piano player for jazz ballet classes in my hometown of Nieuw-Vennep in The Netherlands and I remember it very well. Playing for 3 hours every Friday afternoon, I could pick what I wanted to play and got paid 12.5 guilders per hour (approximately $6 an hour back then). For me, as a kid, that was a fortune. In comparison, my best friend had a newspaper delivery job, and he had to get up at 5 am, 6 days a week, rain or shine. For that he received 25 guilders a week. You can imagine that I felt like the luckiest kid on the block receiving 37.5 guilders a week for only 3 hours of “banging the black and whites”, something I loved to do anyway.

It was around this same time that I discovered Boogie Woogie music, and it became clear to me that I wanted to become a Boogie Woogie piano player. I would have never thought that more than four decades later I would still be making a living playing the piano.  

Something else I never imagined is that I would live most of the year in sunny Tucson, Arizona. Music is what brought me to my new home 23 years ago and I’m very grateful that it did. I never thought I would want to live anywhere other than my birthplace, much less my country. 

From the beginning, I realized that something that made me happy could also make others happy. Luckily, that hasn't changed and as long as we’re both happy, I’ll keep playing for you. Maybe not 5 nights a week anymore, as it takes me a little longer to recover now than when I was 25.  As you might know, the music I'm playing is not background music. It never was and never will be. There is no such thing as “elevator Rock and Roll”. 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for 1000’s of fun shows, great musicians I had the opportunity to work with, great tours, fantastic audiences and friends made along the way. A BIG thank you to everyone who has ever supported me in any way, I couldn’t have done this for 45 years without you.

I wish everyone a happy holiday season and to my American family, friends and fans a Happy Thanksgiving! 

From “the luckiest kid on the block”,

Eric-Jan Overbeek aka Mr. Boogie Woogie