by Steven Seedo
PARAMARIBO — “We believe that Charlie’s death should not go unnoticed. The purpose of this concert is primarily to honor him.” This is what saxophonist Robin Austen says to the True Time. With bassist and lyricist Lea Abdulhak, he is organizing a benefit concert on Sunday in memory of the Surinamese percussionist, instrument maker and sound artist Leon Lemmer, better known as Bongo Charlie. Austin and Abdulhak made music with him in Suriname. The proceeds from the concert will go to the relatives of the musician who died on August 2.
Austen says that musician friends responded positively to the request to participate without hesitation. “That says a lot about how loved and respected Charlie was among his fellow musicians.” It will not be an evening with major commercial artists, but mainly a meeting of musicians who had a personal bond with Charlie and share his musical vision.
“It will not be an evening with major commercial artists, but above all a meeting of musicians who had a personal bond with Charlie and share his musical vision”
Abdulhak: “Charlie was my colleague and mati. We played together on my son’s birthday, on February 8, at Zus en Zo. I was in Suriname for three weeks at the time. That was the last time he played.” Abdulhak also says that her son, Rachwill Breidel, created an instrument with Charlie. “That makes our memory of him even more personal for us.”
Charlie mainly moved within artistic, free and improvised music. He was not only known as a percussionist, but especially as a sound artist and did not think in traditional melodies or chords, but developed his own sound world with self-designed instruments.
Program
The program on Sunday starts with a performance by percussionists such as Jogi Gilles, Yuchi Cordoba and Carlo Hoop. Afterwards, Lea Abdulhak will perform with her band, with a repertoire that focuses on funk. Austen then performs with a composed band of friends and acquaintances of Charlie.
The musicians include bassist, guitarist and Fra Fra Sound founder Vincent Henar. The band plays several pieces that Charlie loved and also a composition of his own: Pentatonic Dreams. This work was arranged by the American pianist Andrew Apollos, who lives in Suriname and was a senior teacher at the Surinamese Conservatory.
Apollos also played with Austen for several years in Charlie’s band, Maya-Su. Saxophonist Franklin Caesar Breeveld, drummer Eddy Veldman and pianist Robin van Geerke are also expected to participate in the program. They perform, among other things, Caribbean jazz. The evening ends with an open jam session.
Tribute and remembrance
Austen has worked with Bongo Charlie since 2011 and was part of his band Maya-Su between 2018 and 2021. “Charlie was primarily seen as a percussionist, but he was primarily a sound artist,” Austen previously told the True Time.
In addition to his music, Charlie made his own instruments, including from natural materials. In his later years he also created special instruments and works of art from recycled materials. With his death, according to Austen, Suriname lost a special and, in his opinion, undervalued artist. The benefit concert in the Netherlands should not only be a tribute to Bongo Charlie, but also a musical reminder of the idiosyncratic sound world he developed during his life.
Violinist and driving force behind the ‘Touch of Jazz Award’, Jean Durham: “Every positive initiative is to be welcomed, especially when it concerns people in need and to assist them in any way. We live in an increasingly tough society, in which it is a matter of survival for many.”
