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Rob Madna (1931-2003)
Tolé Johannes Hendricus ‘Rob’ Madna was born in The Hague, the Netherlands, as the son of an Indonesian father and a Dutch mother. At a young age he was introduced to the guitar, but switched to the piano later. Madna was a complete autodidact, who learned to play by listening to whatever records happened to be around the house: music of Teddy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, or a recording of George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess.’ Together with neighborhood friends Ack and Jerry van Rooijen, Rob listened during the Second World War as much as he could to jazz en dance orchestras, such as the Ramblers. After the war he heard the latest music from America, including bebop, which was to have a deep impact on his further musical growth.
Madna progressed quickly, and from the age of sixteen he regulalry played in public, at times substituting for local professionals, such as Rob Pronk. Apart from submerging himself in music, Madna developed a fascination for mathematics, and he decided to pursue a career as a mathematician rather than a musician. Rob always shunned the spotlights and a life on the road didn’t appeal to him. With what he considered his Asian relativism, he did not seek public recognition and much of his musical life would take place in relative invisibility. Nevertheless, Madna did perform with many jazz outfits, and subbed in many orchestras. He was deeply respected by his fellow musicians and those listeners who knew him. Professionally however, he worked as high school math teacher, and later as deputy principal. Under his own steam he learned how to arrange and compose, and took up the trumpet as well. He studied and found inspiration in the works of Miles Davis, Lennie Tristano, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett and Horace Silver. Madna merged these myriad sources into a unique pianistic style, characterized by a tremendous rhythmic subtlety paired to a remarkable harmonic richness.
As composer-arranger Madna’s sources where Count Basie, Oliver Nelson and most and for all the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. By the mid-1960s Madna’s reputation as a true musician’s musician was such that Thad Jones asked him to join his orchestra for its European tour. Madna kindly refused the offer—feeling the pull of his educational obligations—and also turned down Thad Jones’s next request to become his staff-arranger. Rob in all honesty felt that he was not original enough to bring something new to the sound of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Jones, who only worked with the best, protested vehemently, but Madna wouldn’t budge. His integrity always prevailed.
Madna played with many American greats including trumpeters Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, and Quincy Jones, saxophonists Phil Woods, Dexter Gordon, Lucky Thompson, and Don Byas, and valve-trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. His Dutch colleagues greatly admired him and he played with many of them, including Piet Noordijk, Toon Roos, Ack van Rooijen, Ferdinand Povel, John Engels, Ann Burton, and of course the Dutch Jazz Orchestra. For Rob, composing and arranging for big band was one of his key musical activities. He left an important body of extraordinary works. For various reasons, many were never or poorly recorded. The Dutch Jazz Orchestra has initiated a research project in order to recover and reconstruct these works. Recordings are slated for the fall of 2007.
© Dutch Jazz Orchestra
Rob Madna - Dutch Jazz Orchestra CDs
Special thanks to Astrid en Arthur Madna,
Harm Mobach,
Wim Minnaar,
Hans Bel,
Copyright © 2009, Dutch Jazz Orchestra. All rights reserved.
