Springer specialized in “world music” and African music in particular, deejaying for Dutch Radio 5 and Concertzender radio, and bylines at FRoots, Songlines and MixedWorldMusic.com. He reached out to Afropop years ago and met his teammates in person at various WOMEX conferences over the years.
Since 2013, his specialty for Afropop was enviably covering conferences and music festivals across the world, from Europe to Asia, South America and the continent itself; he had been planning to cover the Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia for us. Although English wasn't his first language, he gamely sat through our rounds of edits, patient even with the time and linguistic differences.
A memorial website has been set up at http://basspringermemorial.nl/, where people can write their own tributes to Springer.Our condolences to his fans, friends and family.
This spring has been hitting our community hard—COVID-19 claiming musicians from our orbit. Bastiaan Springer was a champion for us, and his absence will be felt.
