Why Amsterdam?

rafapak

Hi guys.
There are those gypsy jazz players who decided to live permanently in Amsterdam - Robin Nolan and Adrian Holovaty for instance. What is different about Amsterdam when compared to other towns that attracts people who like music ? There are probably favourable conditions for playing music in Amsterdam since people I mentioned above decided to live there. Can anybody who has knowledge in this subject share few more details ?

Jazzaferri

The city has lots of culture vultures....apartments are small ....so people go out more....

The only downside to Amsterdam is the late fall through early spring......those cold damp winds take some getting used to. I loved it.

wim

Actually, I think Adrian went cos he wanted to see what it feels like to be a short guy for once .. jk

Well after the French, the Dutchmen are the next biggest thing for this music. Look at the Rosenbergs, then guys like Fapy, Paulus Schäfer, Lollo... Rino ... they weren't attracted to Holland because of the gypsy jazz music, they were there already for decades. It has a history, maybe not as much as Paris but still a lot! And because of that history they grew some super young players like Baggermans too.

Besides it's a great city, really beautiful with the canals, the level of English is excellent, if you like bikes you're in heaven, and hey it's only a few hours on a fast train to Paris What's not to like?

Lango-Django

Back in the day, I used to frequent a lovely place in Amsterdam where you could smoke, um, herbaceous substances... think it was called the Paradiso.

I don't know if that sort of thing is still happening there since the European crackdown on smoking in public places...?

Somebody please tell me it's still a thing over there!

wim

These places are everywhere and yes you can buy and smoke weed, they just call them coffee shops. But they are mostly full of tourists, not locals, as far as I saw. Try a spacecake. (Just one!!!)

rafapak

because it is legal to buy weed and often people on drugs commit crimes does it mean that crime rate in Amsterdam is high?

crookedpinky

My guess would be that people on weed are more likely to talk nonsense and laugh inanely rather than commit crime. Can't say I've ever heard of Amsterdam being a hot pot of crime.

rafapak

thanks for info

Bones

I think by definition if it is 'legal' then there is less 'crime' involved???

Rafa maybe ur thinking of meth addicts breaking into houses to steal things to get money to buy their next fix. I think the worst thing that pot smokers are guilty of is too much sitting on the couch watching sports and eating Doritos.

:-)

rafapak

ha ha well, i have never been to Amsterdam therefore I know nothing about what it is like there plus I scare easily so probably this is why I asked about weed related stuff . !

Jazzaferri

Actually, it's not legal.(well as of maybe 10 years ago when we were over there) They decided to not enforce the law. The big change being discussed at the time for the places where you could buy pot, was they had to decide to sell alcohol or pot but they weren't going to be able to sell both.

Amsterdam, by tolerating pot in public, seems to have avoided of the mass of small easy to produce chemical drugs.