Ewald Harold Krolis (16 May 1947 – 22 September 2006) was a

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

kaseko Kaseko is a musical genre from Suriname. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles derived from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The genre is rhythmically complex, with percussion instruments including skratji (a very large bass drum) ...

-singer and percussionist.

Biography

Krolis started singing at a young age; he formed The Rhythm Makers with Bertje Tjin A Kwie, André Stekkel and producer-to-be Stan Lokhin. Their repertoire of

, calypso,

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

, merengue and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

earned Krolis a residency at the local Torarica Hotel's Saramacca-bar. In November 1975, he moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

after Surinam became an independent state. Krolis settled in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

where he formed Caribbean Combo; the other members were his brother Robby, John Kembel, Ricardo Tjon A Kon, Lesley Leeflang, and August Cabenda. They were often joined by Ramon Laparra who went on to lead his own band Master Blaster. Caribbean Combo signed to Unice Records, an independent niche-label, and released their first two singles (''Merie Mie'' and ''Mie Ne Meri Deng''; packed in near-identical sleeveworks) in 1977. A debut-album followed in 1979; ''Switie Bamaro'' consisted of ten new recordings including cover-versions of The Blues Busters' ''Wide Awake In A Dream'' (translated in Surinamese) and

Eddy Grant Edmond Montague Grant (born 5 March 1948) is a Guyanese in the United Kingdom, Guyanese-British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for his genre-blending sound and socially conscious lyrics; his music has blended elements of p ...

's '' Say I Love You''. Throughout the first half of the 1980s, Krolis released 12-inch singles such as 1984's ''Mie Lobi'' which came out on Mirza Records; its B-side ''Mi Kanto Ma Mi De Ete'' (''Fallen But Not Defeated'') became one of Krolis' best-known songs. Pop radio-station

3FM NPO 3FM is a Dutch rhythmic CHR radio station controlled by public broadcaster NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are rock, alternative, indie and pop, though dance and Mega Top 30 tracks may also air at times. History ...

took notice by 1985 and invited Caribbean Combo for a live-concert. In 1986, Krolis got involved in a car crash that left him disabled and practically deaf; he secluded but managed to record one more album; ''Biegie Famier' Mang'', produced by Lesley Leeflang and released in 1995 to positive reviews. Plans for a follow-up album never materialised; Krolis died on 22 September 2006, in a hospital in Rotterdam.

Biography

References

Further reading