Cees van Leeuwen

Cees van Leeuwen (born april 29, 1951) was Kayak's bassplayer on the first 2 albums. Before Cees, Kayak had a French bassist called Jean-Michel Marion. But Van Leeuwen was the first one to play bass on a Kayak record.

After he left Kayak, Cees went on to finish his studies. He became a well known lawyer, specialising in legal matters in the entertainment business. In july 2002, he became the Dutch State Secretary of Education, Culture and Science, under prime-minister Balkenende. When the Balkenende-government collapsed in may 2003, Van Leeuwen recorded a CD-single as a sort of farewell. The charity single was called "Balkenende Blues". Van Leeuwen wrote it, and recorded it with the help of Ton Scherpenzeel.

After the Kayak-reunion in 2000, Van Leeuwen quite often visited a Kayak concert. On april 3, 2003, he visited the "Merlin"-show in Leiden. During the encores, Van Leeuwen joined the band on stage, and played bass on "Wintertime" (see pictures above). A couple of weeks later, the same thing happened at the famous Carré theatre in Amsterdam.

Nowadays, Van Leeuwen has his own Executive Search Company. The company La Search, of which he is the co-founder, is based in Amsterdam.