William Post Music & The White House

4+ (group) performers

Outdoor

Event show

1,5 hour

Large hall, small hall

NL, EN

New, unique and launched in 2024 in the Netherlands-Belgium: For companies and organizations. In Music & The White House, the well-known jazz musician Michael Varekamp and his band, and America expert Willem Post play with music and short stories on current American politics and history with 'side trips' to also us Dutch. A swinging evening with commentary by Willem Post. Varekamp's band and speaker Willem Post are a unique combination, according to the audience.
From Nieuwspoort The Hague and Eindhoven, where it all started last year, to the spectacular climax during the American election night at Kasteel De Wittenburg in Wassenaar. The Dutch press, including De Telegraaf, covered it extensively.

Music & THE WHITE HOUSE
A unique menu of music and stories
"Jazz is the big brother of Revolution" said trumpet legend Miles Davis. American blues and jazz music has always been a reflection of American history and politics, and therefore, to a significant extent, the history of democracy.

In Jazz & The White House, America expert Willem Post and jazz musician Michael Varekamp juxtapose the course of the history of American democracy with that of music. In this way, they give politics a soundtrack and music a pamphlet.
Willem Post is a visual storyteller and will illuminate in short, extraordinary stories the battle points of then and now. Multitalented Varekamp lets the music speak. Music that connects people but also exposes them. Travel with Post and Varekamp through history to eventually end up in current events.


Famous jazz musicians have always been inspired by politics or provided the state of affairs with often painful commentary. Louis Armstrong no longer wanted to officially represent America abroad and cancelled concerts because of segregation in his country. The brilliant bassist Charles Mingus composed Fables of Faubes (an indictment of a racist senator) and Billie Holiday broke the "deafening" silence with the heartbreaking ballad Strange Fruit about the lynching of people of color in the southern United States.

To this day, the United States is a land of contrasts. In almost every area. It is a country of great problems but also of great resilience and unprecedented possibilities. In any case, a country on which the eyes of the world are always focused.

Willem Post was named the No. 1 America expert in the Dutch media by the Volkskrant in 2020. His affiliations include the Clingendael Institute and the Public Diplomacy Council in Washington D.C. Post has published 16 books on the United States including most recently his 'The Soul of America. Democracy on Drift.' His analyses and opinions appear in Dutch and Belgian newspapers. He also regularly comments in television and radio programs such as Nieuwsweekend, Goedemorgen Nederland and Tijd voor Max. In the latter program he met Michael Varekamp.

Michael Varekamp has been giving concerts, workshops and master classes all over the world for thirty years and has worked with Dutch Swing College Band, Branford Marsalis and Miles Davis alumnus Sonny Fortune, among others. He performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center New York, among others, received the Kobe Award in Japan and won a Golden Calf with the film Shabu for which he composed the music. At the request of Willem Post and the White House Watchers, he composed a unique Obama suite on the occasion of the president's coest to the Netherlands in 2010.
'Michael Varekamp has an astonishing sound and beautiful phrasing to the honor and glory of jazz' -****Le Monde, Paris.

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