Jan Wolfkamp (Dalfsen) studied classical percussion and drums at the conservatory in Zwolle.
After graduating in 1987, he played in various Dutch (theatre) music productions such as Jenny Arean, Robert Paul, Robert Long, Macbeth, Hessel v/d Wal, Big Band Bodycheck, Sido Martens, Alleen op de Wereld and Purper.
In 1993 he won the Scheveningen Begeleiders prize. As a drummer/loopist in the band of the American stick player Greg Howard, he toured the United States, France and Switzerland several times. In this band he combines acoustic and electronic drums into “live looping”.
He also made various CDs with, among others, Sido Martens and Hessel van der Wal. In 2003 he wrote the music for the theatre project MacBeth. On the CD ‘Music inspired by Da Vinci” he programmed and played all the percussion and drum parts.
In his solo project ‘Pads Alloud’ he combines acoustic percussion with electronics and loops and uses multimedia techniques. He played with this at various percussion festivals. Two CDs of his solo project have been released.
Jan played in music projects with bassist Michael Manring (USA) and bamboo flute player Ronu Majumdar (India). Together with Marcel van Cleef he forms the percussion duo ‘Wolfkamp & van Cleef’. With Herman Nijkamp and Erik Raayman he regularly plays in various jazz clubs.
Together with Cesar Zuiderwijk he currently forms a drum duo. He also currently plays in the theaters with Ernest Beuving and ‘De Bende van Beuving’.
With the well-known piano virtuoso Jan Vayne he performs with the sensational program Instant Composing: Pianist Jan Vayne is an ‘improviser pur sang’. Drummer/percussionist/loopist Jan Wolfkamp from Dalfsen, is a sound and feeling person. And that is also reflected in his setup. A combination of a drum set with (hand) percussion, crazy, special sounds and of course the electronic drums and loops.
Jan Wolfkamp recovered from no fewer than four strokes. The professional drummer and percussionist did this mainly by developing self-invented drum exercises.

He is grateful that he can muster the resilience to practice both his brain and his body almost daily, sometimes for hours at a time. In this way, he gradually picked up drumming and life again.” He recorded his experiences in a book: ‘The wrong stroke’, which was published two weeks ago.

On June 4, 2021, Jan Wolfkamp (now 64) suffered his first stroke. In a year and a half, he ended up in the Braincare department of the hospital four times. “A huge shock of course, also for my family (his wife Linda and two children, ed.) and environment. Everyone was very shocked, but family and friends also sympathized and supported enormously.” Although he will never be completely the same again, Wolfkamp recovered surprisingly quickly from the four consecutive heart attacks. “I started at about twenty percent of what I could do before and I am now at about 85 percent. And I still see room for further improvement.” He put in the necessary struggle and effort himself, but the drummer also realizes that he was lucky. “Certainly. But you can also turn it around,” he says. “You can also say: what bad luck that I got this.” Because it is bad luck, he assumes. And perhaps some hereditary predisposition, because he has never been involved with drink and drugs. “At most a glass of wine now and then, but always in moderation.”

No temperature

Yet the consequences remain noticeable: “I have neuropathic pain: chronic nerve irritations that are a bit like the injection you get from the dentist. It is also very strange that I no longer experience a temperature in the right side of my body. And my body is less strong; I can hardly lift anything. That is difficult for a drummer who has been used to lugging his own gear around with him for years. That is no longer possible; I really need help with that now. And behind the wheel, I quickly get too many stimuli. A short car ride is still possible, but longer distances are no longer possible for me.”

Why did he want to record his experiences in a book, which he not only wrote himself, but also designed graphically? “It was a test for me: can I still put into words and organize what happened to me? Writing and compiling helped me to regain an overview. From a helicopter view, I have given my experiences a place and learned to understand them better. I see it as a way of processing, an attempt to be able to deal with them.”

Relearning

Wolfkamp is convinced that his resilience and passion for making music have helped him move forward. “After the second heart attack, I tried to drum again for the first time. That was very disappointing. My left arm and hand in particular could do much less than before. That was very confronting.” After getting over the initial shock, he decided to work on his recovery. “I decided to get as far as I can in that. That takes time and effort.”

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