History

PDM started very modestly in 1988 and was from the very beginning conducted by Filip Demeyer. The ambitious bandleader wanted to introduce some new ideas in wind music by playing musical, film scores and jazz with a “stage band”.

The musicians in the Oudenaarde area were quickly motivated and PDM became a real Big Band. (5 saxophones, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, piano, guitar, bass and drums). PDM toured in Belgium, Holland and Germany. The first CD “Na 5 jaar” was released in 1993. It was a recording of the first steps of this band towards Big Band music.

In the nineties PDM became a real jazz band. Contemporary scores as well as the standards were rehearsed, lots of vocalists made their way to the stage with this band. PDM also toured Italy.

In 1998 a new CD was recorded. The very best musicians in the Belgian jazz scene such as Rony Verbiest, Marjolein Cneut, Marc Godfroid, Dieter Limbourg, Serge Plume and last but not least Toots Tielemans joined the band in the studio recording ”Love for Sale”.

A few months later, Ivan Scheldeman, who saw the band on VRT television, came with the idea of organising a real thirties and forties dance night! PDM rehearsed the original scores of the prewar big bands and became a dance hall band. People learned how to dance the jive and the lindyhop, jazz became dance music again.

This resulted in crowded swing parties and dance floors packed with people. A lot of concert promoters were inspired by the idea. PDM played in Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Paris and Holland. The very dynamic approach of  music which was characteristic for PDM fitted this repertoire perfectly.

It was time for a new recording. “Let’s Swing” became a ballroom album.