Cuby + Blizzards, also known as Cuby & the Blizzards, were a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

group, founded in 1964 by vocalist

Harry Muskee Harry "Cuby" Muskee (10 June 1941 – 26 September 2011) was the singer of the blues band Cuby + Blizzards, which he co-founded with Eelco Gelling. Muskee was born in Assen, and died in Rolde aged 70. Biography Muskee was born in the Wilhelmin ...

and guitarist

Eelco Gelling Eelco Gelling (born 12 June 1946) is a Dutch blues guitarist. Gelling played with Cuby + Blizzards (which he co-founded together with Harry Muskee) until 1976. Cuby + Blizzards (1966–1974) Cuby + Blizzards (C+B) was founded by Eelco Gelling a ...

.Larkin C ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'' (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) p 137 During the 1960s, the band's mixture of sound, drawing upon a variety of

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

s which included

and

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

, gave them a pioneering sound which was completely different from any other Dutch band in the same period. The spelling of the name varies, with 'Cuby' also written as 'QB' and the ampersand (&) also written as 'and' or '+' and the 'and' sometimes left out. The spelling 'Cuby + Blizzards' was used on the first albums.

Career

Cuby + Blizzards originated from Drenthe

Grolloo Grolloo is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Aa en Hunze, and lies about 11 km southeast of Assen. History The village was probably first mentioned in the 12th century as Grunlo, and means "gr ...

with members Harry Muskee (whose dog was called Cuby), Eelco Gelling, Nico Schröder and Hans Kinds. The band's first single, a blues-based track bearing similarities to

The Pretty Things ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

output, was "Stumble and Fall" in 1965. They had their first top 40 hit with "Back Home" in the Netherlands 1966. In 1967 they toured with

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

(after he had left

Them Them or THEM, a third-person plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fiction by Welsh ...

), recorded an album, ''Praise the Blues'' with U.S. blues musician

Eddie Boyd Edward Riley Boyd (November 25, 1914 – July 13, 1994)Dahl, Bill. Eddie Boyd: Biography AllMusic. Retrieved October 13, 2016. was an American blues pianist, singer and songwriter, best known for his recordings in the early 1950s, including the ...

and scored a top 10 hit with "Window of My Eyes". That year,

John Mayall John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, musician and songwriter, whose musical career spans over sixty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among it ...

stayed at their farm and the next year they regularly played with the 'king of British blues'

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major in ...

, who is featured on their album ''Live in Düsseldorf'' (1968). The line-up of the band changed regularly, but founders Harry Muskee and Eelco Gelling remained at the core of the band until 1976.

Herman Brood Hermanus "Herman" Brood (; 5 November 1946 – 11 July 2001) was a Dutch musician, painter, actor and poet. As a musician he achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, and was called "the greatest and only Dutch rock 'n' r ...

was the pianist from early 1967 until mid-1969 (which kickstarted his career) and again in 1976. Also in 1976, Gelling left to join

Golden Earring Golden Earring (originally known as The Tornados) was a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on th ...

. Muskee then decided to drop the name C+B and to form the Harry Muskee Band. This band recorded one album before Muskee decided to leave the music business. In 1980 he formed the Muskee Gang with a line-up of Herman Deinum (bass guitar) and Hans la Faille (drums), who had both joined C+B in 1969, together with saxophonist Rudy van Dijk, Paul Smeenk (guitar) and Jeff Reynolds (trumpet). Among the best known songs released by the band were "Another Day, Another Road", "Distant Smile", "Window Of My Eyes" and "Appleknockers Flophouse". In 1996 Cuby + Blizzards re-formed without Eelco Gelling, who was replaced by Erwin Java on guitar. In 2004 they went on a theater tour to honor

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

. C+B came to an end when Harry Muskee died of cancer on 26 September 2011. The band received an

Edison award The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed by ...

for their debut album ''Desolation''. The song "Window of My Eyes" (a Top 10 hit in The Netherlands in 1968), was featured over the ending credits for the 2010 film '' The American''.

Line-ups

; Early line-up: * Harry "Cuby" Muskee, vocals *

, guitar *

Hans Kinds Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

, guitar (replaced by

, piano) * Willy Middel, bass (replaced by Jaap van Eik) * Hans Waterman, drums (replaced by Dick Beekman) ; Late sixties line-up: * Harry Muskee, vocals * Eelco Gelling, guitar * Herman Deinum, bass guitar * Hans la Faille, drums * Helmig van der Vegt, piano ; 1983 – line-up: * Harry Muskee, vocals * Rudy Van Dijk, tenor sax * Paul Smeenk, guitar * Herman Deinum, bass * Hans Lafaille, drums * Jeff Reynolds, trumpet ; Reunion line-up 1996-2011: * Harry Muskee, vocals * Erwin Java, guitar * Herman Deinum, bass guitar * Hans la Faille, drums * Helmig van der Vegt, piano

Albums

References

External links

Official site of Cuby + Blizzards

Full Cuby & the Blizzards Discography

Eelco's Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuby and The Blizzards Musical groups established in 1964 Musical groups disestablished in 2011 Dutch blues musical groups Nederpop Herman Brood 1964 establishments in the Netherlands 2011 disestablishments in the Netherlands