Our colleague Bas Springer passed away Saturday night 28th March.
A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with lung cancer. After the treatment was stopped Bas went home to spend time with his partner, but passed away the next day.
For the Concertzender he made the programme Mariama, with old and new music from Africa, and for many years he was the music compiler for the programme Dichtbij Nederland on Radio 5. In addition he was DJ Mombasa, of course with world music as his specialism. He was a fine man with a large circle of friends, both nationally and internationally.
Music, especially from other cultures, played a major role in his life. After working for many years in record shop Boudisque Bas decided to concentrate on musical journalism and found a platform for it in the Financieele Dagblad. Before that he wrote for the magazine Afrika, for Aloha and Revolver, for Onze Wereld and up to this month for Spanje and Lust for Life.
Bas was a networker and loved travelling, visited often by invitation many festivals at exotic locations such as Malaysia and his favourite place: La Réunion. He also went to Womex every year. For this he reported at length on the site MixedWorldMusic.com, where he coordinated the cd review.
As well as writing and coordinating every year he was actively involved during the Music Meeting in Nijmegen and the Houtfestival in Haarlem, where he interviewed artists with flair before or after their performances in the Mixed Media Lounge.
Bas, we’ll miss you.
