Jeroen Krabbé, actor and filmmaker
‘The first time I worked with Henny was for my first film, Left Luggage† I asked him to compose the music. When Henny sat down at the piano and started playing, I couldn’t say anything anymore. The music matched the images perfectly. I was in tears. He reacted modestly, almost surprised. He even asked if I really liked it.
‘Later, when I asked Henny for the film music at the Discovery of Heaven† the same thing happened. He knew the book of course, Henny read all the new literature. He immediately captured, even in the first musical attempts, the heavenly and mysterious feeling I was looking for. It was a fantastic collaboration.
‘After that we continued to see each other a lot, he became a dear friend. He called me a few months ago and told me he was not well. I’ve had a lot of trouble with that knowledge lately. Not only because of the friendship, but also because Henny was an incredibly special and wise person.’
Henk Hofstede, singer and guitarist Nits
‘Henny and I were actually opposites musically. According to the press, his band Doe Maar was a ‘commercial girl band’ in the eighties, my band Nits actually made ‘intellectual pop’. That was what Henny found interesting, he was curious about us. That’s how we got to know each other.
“One night, we were preparing for our tour with the Nice Guys, sitting at his house and playing each other’s favorite music. Suddenly it turned out that we both loved an obscure band from the 60s, The United States of America. Incidentally, conversations with Henny were much more about poetry than about music. He was a huge reader, gave me books for inspiration. He always managed to surprise.
‘Above all, Henny was a professional. When I’m working on a song, I often mess around. He had a blueprint in his head. He called himself a ‘carpenter’. You can hear that in his music. Many of Doe Maar’s songs are perfect. There is an imaginative playfulness that is timeless. Henny wrote pure music that you can still play today.’
Cato van Dijck, singer and guitarist My Baby
‘When we were on stage with our band with Henny, he was always the undisputed band leader. He heard everything, looked back knowingly if someone behind him made a mistake and knew with a nod exactly when something had to be done.
‘But Henny was never pedantic. On the contrary, he was open and curious about everyone. I thought that was very special about him. You would think that someone who has done so many special things gets tired of the music world after a while or simply thinks they know better than, for example, the people who just came to watch.
‘He actually asked all kinds of questions, was genuinely curious about who we were listening to and by whom we were inspired. It is not obvious that someone with his caliber and experience would be so interested in going to the young generation of musicians. He had a kind of childish curiosity that I loved.’