The Blues
Factory
(Jacob de Haan)

This blues, in two movements, pictures the nearly extinct textile industry in the east
of the Netherlands. This composition was commissioned for the closing of the
bleaching plant in Eibergen in the province of Gelderland. The work starts with a
compelling, slow, authentic blues that stands for the bygone textile industry, which
gave this region its identity. A fast blues in a jazzy rock style follows in which a
renewed identity reflects the optimism for the future. Subsequently, we hear a little
predilection for the past (“Sing the Blues”), but everything works out well in the
powerful final chord.