the rosa ensemble

The Rosa Ensemble is a Dutch contemporary music group. One of their 2003/2004 chamber music programs, "The Spinroom 03", presented works by Beefheart, Zappa, De Clerc and Koolmees.

In 2004, the Rosa Ensemble and Hans Dagelet performed "Selling Hoovers In Mojave" a tribute to Captain Beefheart, including music by Don Van Vliet, but also by Frank Zappa. One year later, the group released "Selling" as an album.

2005/01/31, Dutch radio station Concertzender did a broadcast of the 2004/10/08 performance at 'Kikker' in Utrecht, NL.

Frank Zappa's 'Sofa' was played as an encore by the Rosa Ensemble with the Esquire Saxophone Quartet at the Utrecht concert.


  het rosa ensemble & august willemsen: diepe wildernis
    (2000, cd, nl, q disc)
  the rosa ensemble: troubling for sugar
    (2001, cd, nl, nm classic)
  the rosa ensemble: n*e*w*s* 2017
    (2002, cd, nl, do records)
  rosa ensemble: selling hoovers in mojave
    (2005, cd, nl, bonte koe records bkr 003) - incl. various beefheart & zappa compositions
  rosa ensemble: the blind spot
    (2006, cd, nl, bonte koe records bkr 007)





random notes

from: Teejo Tieman


in the year 2000 the rosa ensemble (, a company of musicians playing modern and contemporary music, took up the idea of a tribute to captain beefheart, a composer from quite a different direction.and in march of the next year the group announced their work in progress as the theatre show A FLOPPY BOOT STOMP. a few cites from the press message:

* * * 
Next season the RosA EnSEmBle from Utrecht, Holland will present its second full production. In an arena like setting with super sized video screens on all sides RosA plays the brilliant and sometimes daredevilish works of Captain Beefheart alias Don van Vliet. Beefheart had his roots in the blues, from which he landed up in the avant-garde of the seventies. RosA, familiar with the language of the new music, peels off the rind of his music and, like a x-ray scan, examines the inside of this big bang in the music history.

Over the years Beefheart's music has been disposed of as the work of a disturbed mind, or the brilliant sounds of a visionary. Of course the truth lies somewhere in between. Beefheart's role in music history has been underexposed compared to his pal Frank Zappa. Wrongly, according to RosA. Beefheart's music style is an adventure in itself. It's a fact that till now his music hasn't lost any of its topicality and expressiveness.

A Floppy Boot Stomp is a combination of a concert and an audio visual plant. The music will be performed as instrumentals, video images replace the voice and words of Don van Vliet. The RosA EnSEmBle, complemented with a few guests, faces the challenge to pick up the odd way of playing of The Magic Band. According to The Explosive Note Theory, every note should be played with maximum intensity, as if it had nothing to do with the previous and the following note.

A Floppy Boot Stomp will be produced in fall 2001 and the playing period covers January, February and March 2002. Foreign concerts will follow next.
* * *

Teejo adds: Circumstances turned against them in the form of unwilling subsidy suppliers and other obstacles, so for a long time it seemed like nothing was happening. not in 2002, and not in 2003 too...

Spring 2004n it suddenly appeared that the rosa ensemble had re-animated their tribute project. but many changes had been made to the 'floppy boot stomp' concept. first of all, the title of the shows had become SELLING HOOVERS IN MOJAVE (something the captain once did, as you know), and next the content of it was completely different to the original idea: except that the performance contains classics of the Captain, it also deals with translating: [it are] translations in music and text. Hans Dagelet speaks, raps, sings, and plays trumpet.

Although it will confuse you, i would like to mention that 'selling hoovers in mojave' was part of rosa's 'the spinroom 03' project, and that the two first performances where part of a bigger program called 'cross linx 4 - spoken word meets new music'. Why do you need to know this? Well, simply because all the texts are in dutch.... A brave idea, but this unfortunately also decreased the potential foreign interest.

Nevertheless, that hadn't withheld the dutchmen from already planning a second series of similar shows the following year. although, it was different enough to give those 2005 performances a separate name: BLUNDERLAND (beefheart phase 2).


the others of invention



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soundtracks various artists