Onder Invloed

You had to wait a couple of extra days, but here’s finally - most of - the session with Ro Halfhide and M-JO. We recorded the session in the little upper room of Cafe Skek in Amsterdam. With a ceiling so low, you couldn’t stand up straight, both Ro and Mark played some covers, in between ordering coffee through the window and flirting with a girl on a couch.

There are a lot of videos, so I won’t waste a lot of your time by writing too much about this session. You should just watch them and enjoy. But I do want to share some background information on both Ro Halfhide and M-JO. Mark de Jonge (M-JO) is a rather strange fellow, in every good sense of the word. You’ll probably either love his music or hate it. There’s no other way to it. I’m in the first category, and I hope there’ll be a lot more people who will be as well.

Ro is one of those guys you meet, and like right away. He’s been busy too; he produced the first two Lucky Fonz III albums, is founder of the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild, records the audio at a lot of Onder Invloed sessions, is a photographer and last but not least, a musician. And he does it all very well. See for yourself.

There’ll be two more songs from this session - one by each musician - online this Friday, so keep coming back. For photos click here. For two more videos from this session, click here.

Ro Halfhide - Love Is Strange - Everly Brothers

Ro Halfhide - What A Wonderful World - Sam Cooke

Ro Halfhide - My Funny Valentine - Jazz standard

M-JO - Late Night - Syd Barrett

M-JO - A Message To Pretty - Love