Ernst Jansz

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Jansz on the cover of his book De Overkant

Ernst Gideon Jansz (Amsterdam, May 24, 1948) is one of the founders and figureheads of the Dutch ska/reggae band of the 1980's, Doe Maar. His father is Indonesian, and this heritage influenced his songwriting. This is especially true of the Doe Maar song "Ruma Saya", where he describes fitting in with neither Dutch nor Indonesian culture fully.^[1]

Together with Henny Vrienten, Jansz wrote almost all the songs of Doe Maar. Usually the songs were sung by the one who wrote it; so Jansz sang about half and Vrienten the others. He was originally asked to be in the band as a keyboardist, and played synthesizer on many songs.

After Doe Maar split up, Ernst Jansz did various solo projects, and played in bands such as the Dutch folk band CCC inc. For quite a while he also performed regularly as a guest-musician in the back-up band for Boudewijn de Groot.

Ernst Jansz has written three semi-autobiographical books: Gideons droom (Gideon's Dream, 1983) De Overkant (The Other Side, 1985), and Molenbeekstraat (Een liefdeslied 1948 - 1970) (Molenbeekstraat: a lovesong 1948-1970), 2006). The last two titles are also the titles of Jansz' solo-albums. Gideons droom is about a second-generation Indonesian Dutchman like himself; De Overkant is a three-part book dealing with letters between Jansz and his family (especially his father), the life of his mother, and an account of his trip to Indonesia. Molenbeekstraat covers his early life and mixes in songtext from the Molenbeekstraat album. ^[2]

^{In 1997 Jansz married actress Jaloe Maat, the mother of his two youngest children. He has a daughter by an earlier marriage. He currently lives in Neerkant, the Netherlands.}