Frans - Henk - Lanny - Joost - Wim

Marie-José Tiemstra

Bare with me, you’re at a party placed in some centuries ago... for a change, there is actually a good band playing, sure, you dance a bit and your dearest friends are talking you into singing a song with the band, just because you happen to have an acceptable voice, anyway, so far so good. A few years later you get a call, whether I would be free and willing to sing a few songs, you know, to save a party. That’s how I got to meet the boys of came2play.

What happened before:
Although I come from a very musical family, the very moment I proposed that I wanted to become a professional musician, the parental response was unanimous: “No way José, you are going to learn a real profession” period, and that said, that’s just what me and my sisters (3) did.
I have always played the piano, but when I started my studies in Amsterdam , pedagogical science, I bought a guitar. It’s real hard to fit a piano in a single tiny student room.
During 1979 I have spend a few months in the Philippines , where it was discovered that I had a pretty voice. I have been writing songs for as long as I can remember, but never did anything with it, until I started to play with a guitarist called Peter Meppelink. Our main track had a Latin groove, but we complemented those by songs we wrote ourselves. We performed on and off, either by ourselves or with other bands we had met along the way.

I finished my studies (yes), traveled and got my first job, but you can’t run away from your destiny… I still wanted to do more with music. Finally I attended the Academy of Popular Music , including a full year of Jazz. Once that was behind me, I did an audition by a cover band Blue Steel. A fabulous time, lot’s of work, to much at times, so I had to give up the job, and when there were less gigs, I simply worked as an interim doing various insignificant small jobs. Then, I got a “real’ job, wow, project coordinator in an association for the youth, after all that’s what I had studied for in the first place.

Sometime later I became pregnant from my first child and got married to Floris, my husband. Things started to slow down a bit. Blue Steel broke up, the Laundry Big Band remained and I decided to focus myself more on Jazz. Thru the big band activities I came in contact with Richard de Jongh, who plays the saxophone and many other instruments, a fine musician. We started to perform together, added others on a “need to be cases” and we are still doing this.

Below you will find a summary of my prior and current musical adventures:

1989 - 1991       Cool Cast: Style: funk
1991 - 1995       Just the three of us: Style: Jazz
1992 - 1997       Blue Steel: Style: seventies
1993 - 1995       The Swinging Husband: Style: twenties / thirties
1995 - 1997       Bugger Strikes Back: (backup singer). Style: seventies

1991 - current    The Laundry Big Band: Style: big band Jazz
1996 - current    Duo met Richard de Jongh: Style Popular.
2003 - current    Mama en de Papa’s: Style: rock
2004 - current    came2play…

I love many different musical directions, but according to insiders I shine in the Jazzy or Funk corner. Personally, I love doing stuff from Anouk or Tina Turner, in other words. I am flexible and pretty easy.

Besides music, I like sports, passive as well as active. I have two kids, Maudy the oldest and by definition Hugo being the youngest. Last but not least, hopefully without sounding to corny, I really like performing with came2play, the main reasons being that these guys are a fun bunch to be with, on as well as off stage, and as I mentioned before, they know how to make music sound the way it should.


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Frans - Henk - Lanny - Joost - Wim