The Relda Trio - South Africa 1954
Brian Jones - Guitar
Vincent van Rooyen - Chromatic Harmonica
Art Daane - Bass Harmonica
The Amateurs.
Art Daane migrated to South Africa in May 1954. The place where Art landed was 'Strand,' a little village by the sea, and soon people seemed to know that he played a musical instrument, as he was asked to take part in a talent quest in the local cinema. With his broken English he phoned Vincent van Rooyen, a chromatic player from 'Parow,' and told him about this, he then went to see Bryan Jones, his future brother-in-law, who was a magnificent guitarist and keen to join them to make up a trio. They decided to play numbers they all new, and stuck to the original arrangements, so that they didn't need much time to practice. They lived too far apart and could only practice over the weekends. They played the Czardas of Monti, Hora Staccato and the 12th Street Rag. They had a great write-up in the local paper about this guy that looked as if he was eating a watermelon, they probably had never seen a bass harmonica before.
The guitarplayer was that natural, that when he got his first chord harmonica it looked as if he had never done anything else in his life, and that was the birth of the Relda Trio. (Read back to front).
During their first tour in the Western Province, they stopped in the Hex River Mountains and had a photograph made in
the snow with a self-made snowman.
The trio became very popular and were invited to appear on radio. This success lead them to get their own 2 weekly programme on on Monday evenings at 7.30 pm, lasting 30 minutes on the Afrikaans speaking S.A.U.K.
The 5 Adlers
When The Relda trio wanted to become more professional, they seeked the help of Max Adler.
A well-known Accordionist and teacher in Cape Town.
The Semi Professionals.
The Trio had lots of success, many radio shows, theatre productions and commercials kept them busy. Touring the country
with comedian "Piet Pompies" [Pieter van der Byl] took most of their time, the distances were great and sometimes had to
travel all weekend to dojust one show.
They were regular guests on the Caltex- and Atlantic shows on radio by the S.A.B.C and
Springbok Radio.
At the end of 1960 Art was to move back to his home country, which meant the end of the Relda Trio.
In 1989, when Art went to the Worldchampionships in Trossingen, Germany, he met Vincent again, and you could well imagine
what a great time they had after 29 years.
Vincent competed with his new trio and took 3rd place, and took part in the duo competition, and took 2nd place.
Island of the White Cloud.
Back to the sixties again. Since being back in Holland, in The Hague to be precise. Art had been playing in several groups,
and working his way through loads of meat when he was offered a position in New Zealand, where he and his family arrived in
January of 1967.
A great country to live in, he had never seen a place that green, and all year round too. The outdoor living was
tremendous, the family spent many a weekend, in the open, on the beaches. New Zealand wasn't filled with lots of
harmonica players, so he took his chance in starting a harmonica school.
The school wasn't a real success, except for the fact that he ended up with a chord and bass player. With Art on lead,
Ross Fisher on Chords, and Richard Wade on Bass they didn't quite make the grade, but had enough work to keep them
practicing for a larger repertoire.
Home again.
Once back in his home country and settling down in a complete strange city, where he had never been in his life before,
he decided to look for some harmonica players, who, undoubtedly, had to be found somewhere in his vicinity.
How wrong he was, there was no one to be found, and after 16 years in this city he decided to go to Trossingen, where he
didn't only meet his old friend Vincent again at Hohner's Harmonica World Championships in Trossingen, Germany,
but also became re-acquainted with long-lost friends, all this lead to establishing the Catstown Harmonica Club in his
home town.
Besides playing and teaching, Art loves to promote the instrument and the people who use it, doing research and writing
articles about the artists and the instrument is taking up a large amount of his time which gave him great satisfaction.
The new Relda´s.
Since his arrival back in Holland, Art hadn't been playing harmonica seriously as he wasn't able to find anybody to make
up a trio in the region where he resides.
On 7 March 1999, Art met an old friend, Cor van Helden from Rotterdam. Cor played the chromatic. Cor's friend, Peter Krol,
played bass and lived just around the corner from Cor's place in Eindhoven. The two of them only live a few miles from
Art's place in Helmond.
He was, like Cor, very much in the mood to start a trio with Art on chords.
Although Art had never played the chord harmonica seriously, he found it a challenge to have a new "Relda Trio" again with
himself on chords.
They made their first public appearance in the Accordion and Harmonica Museum "De Muse"on 28 September 1999. Since then
they appeared at various venues.
Since Art had a very busy personal Itinerary for 2002, visiting South Africa and various European countries
to promote the harmonica and a visit to Singapore and Malyasia, he resigned from
the trio in March 2002, and was replaced by Frank Rijsdijk.
The new formation is now called "The Jeno Trio".
During his visit to South Africa in 2002, they got the original Relda Trio from the 50's together again to record one of
Vincent's own compositions "Wineland Seties" for Art's double CD project in Holland.
This project is a compilation of Dutch Harmonica Players 1947-2002. It contains 46 titles on
2 Cd's.
To obtain this double Cd: e-mail
Listen to recordings in Windows Media format. Click the Icon to download
at no charge.
Relda Trio- Copyright © Bassie Produkties BV LC-code: 0160
Recorded: Cape Town, South Africa 2002
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On 2 April 2004 Art returned to South Africa indefinitely. His old friend Johann Kok, whom he taught to play
the chromatic in 1954, is still living in the same village by the sea. Since then Johann and Art performed as the
"Helderberg Harmonica Duo", with Johann on Chromatic and Art on the Chord harmonica. They solely play
traditional South African music from composers of the past like:
Early in 2008 Johann had a heart attack, followed by a stroke after which
he became disabled, and the future for the "Helderberg Harmonica Duo" looked slim. Soon after, Johann's family found out
that he also had cancer he became terminal. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his closest family on
Sunday 13 April 2008, at the age of 71.
He will be missed by family and friends. He was my best friend for 54 years and will never been forgotten.
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