VARA Dansorkest

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The VARA Dansorkest (1964 - 1986), named after the Dutch broadcaster VARA, was a big band led by Charlie Nederpelt of The Ramblers, the Dutch jazz band and dance orchestra dating back to 1926. Charlie Nederpelt had joined The Ramblers in 1954 and was a pianist who had led his own bands. Although the VARA Dansorkest was initially largely made up of jazz musicians from The Ramblers, the VARA Dansorkest's style and repertoire were more in tune with the 1960s and the VARA's vision for the future of big-band broadcasts. The VARA (a Dutch public-service broadcaster founded in 1925 as the 'Vereeniging van Arbeiders Radio Amateurs') took the decision in 1964 to form the orchestra after differences with Theo Uden Masman, who had founded and led The Ramblers since 1926, meant that they could no longer work together. The Ramblers first broadcast for the VARA had been in 1933, so predictably, there were protests. VARA realised that because Theo Uden Masman was so closely and fondly associated with The Ramblers, they had to find a new name, and re-named the band after themselves. Undaunted by these issues, the VARA invited Charlie Nederpelt to lead the band and it came into being in 1964. Ten years later, in 1974, The Ramblers musicians reconvened under their own name and The VARA Dansorkest lost a few members but continued. However as with many big bands, it fell victim to funding problems and decreasing audiences as tastes changed. The band's last performance was broadcast live on Ra

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