GJ Pianist - ID needed

TonyRees · December 2025

Hi all,

In Jan-Feb 2002 I attended a private party / small club performance in the Netherlands by the Rosenberg Trio, via the good offices of Mary Honcoop who some on this group will no doubt remember... I took some photos of the occasion, this was the pianist who played with the Trio and I am wondering if anyone can confirm his identity - could it for example be Peter Beets who played with them on a number of other occasions? E.g. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsLOIRZ_c1Y

My image is here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosenberg_Trio,_Netherlands_2002-3.jpg

Thanks in advance - Tony

billyshakes · December 2025

Raise of the glass to the memory of the great Mary. She was very generous to many players and did a lot to connect with anyone that was interested in this music. Thanks for mentioning her.

https://www.djangobooks.com/blog/in_memoriam_mary_honcoop_19522004/?srsltid=AfmBOoqZw1UuLjPF06R-WSvf9RUMcrW9bvgzgTcsWyVWaet5hlCRv9h-

Buco · December 2025

It sure does look like it's Peter.

TonyRees · December 2025

Here he is from a 2003 album cover - same sweater I think! Pretty sure that clinches it.

https://www.crisscrossjazz.com/album/img/1237.jpg

If no-one disagrees, I will update my photo legend on Wikimedia Commons (presently just says "Guest pianist with the Rosenberg Trio")... also maybe post here my other pics from the occasion?

(I believe I may have a photo of Mary as well).

Tony

Phil · December 2025

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/123951#Comment_123951

100%. In my early days learning about Gypsy Jazz, and prior to YouTube, Mary most graciously mailed me vhs tapes of Samois festivals. 🍻🍻🍻

TonyRees · December 2025

Here is the full band on stage. This and associated shots were all a bit grainy (fast film, low light...) but recently I have been using some denoise software with pretty amazing result (Topaz Photo AI, unfortunately you can no longer purchase this it seems, have to rent it with a swag of other stuff you probably do not need!!). Untreated shot (scan from print in album) at top, treated shot below (with slight sharpen; reduced 50% from full size original for posting here...).

BillDaCostaWilliams · December 2025

The treated version is impressive, Tony.

I would be curious to see this applied to some of the less distinct Django photos.

I do remember interesting colorized versions posted here over the years.

TonyRees · December 2025

Hi Bill, yes colorization can add to the appeal of an antique photo if done tastefully, although of course the real colours may have been different :)

With the AI restoration, for me the goal is noise elimination (without a plasticky result, that many such programs give), and where successful is very useful in rescuing otherwise rather poor shots, the present "Peter Beets" one being a case in point (I did not previously show the "before" shot) :

If you look really critically, you can see a few bits of noise that were not completely suppressed (depending on the portion of the photo), or elsewhere, were possibly suppressed too much (e.g. rough carpet has become smooth) but really, it would be churlish to complain.

The area to avoid is AI face reconstruction/replacement, where really strange things can happen - basically the program swaps in things from other photos it has in its memory bank that coincide with the starting image RE major features, with extremely unpredictable results!

So historic Django pictures might get better, or might get worse as well, depending on the type of noise present and how well the program can deal with it, plus how much genuine detail is left once the noise is removed (you do not want to start "inventing" detail that is not there, I would say). And different programs give different results as well - some better, some worse, plus most can be tuned a bit by the operator (or forced, by additional image pre-processing) ... one can quickly enter deep water here, and lose a lot of hours!

Cheers - Tony