The Story
In 1972, trumpet player Ruud Stuurman — known on stage as Rudy Antonio — started writing his own songs, and there seemed to be no end to the line: by 1976 he had written more than 130. He released them a dozen at a time as The Antonio Brass, beginning with “San Diego Train” in 1973.
By 1991 the Brass had become a live band, on record from the Roomburgh Theatre in Leiden — and it never really stopped: the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, audiences from across Europe and from Japan, Canada and the USA. Earliest of the players was guitarist Ruud Ebbens; closest through the years were keyboard player Kees Buurman and Ruud's son Paul Stuurman, a trumpet player like himself.
The music — standards and originals alike — is best described as a mixture of jazz, blues and Tijuana music: joyful, and by no means elitist. The line-up has changed again and again, reinvented for one-off concerts and an eight-man Brass touring the rebuilt Roomburgh hall. From “San Diego Train” in 1973 to “C'est Si Bon” in 2025, the albums keep coming.
“The Antonio Brass was more a concept than a band — a name that masked a changing roster of musicians.”
