Welcome

Susanne Alt is a saxophone player and composer, living in Amsterdam. She has released 4 cd’s with her own group, the “Susanne Alt Quartet”. Susanne got a lot of media attention in 2009 because of her third album which included trombone-legend Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight on guitar.

Her video’s on Youtube have been viewed more than 400 000 times...

Out now: Susanne Alt Quartet: Live at Bimhuis (february 2011)

Soon to be released: Susanne Alt "How to kiss" (april 2012)

What's new?

24-01-2012Maybe you remember, last year, in april, I spent a couple of weeks in Mexico City, performing and recording with Adrián Escamilla and his quartet....The album, "TEMUDGIN" by Adrián Escamilla Quartet with Susanne Alt, has been released at the end of last year in Mexico.The style is mainly modern jazz, I would maybe even describe it as: influenced by italian and spanish jazz. it's listening music, music you want to sit down to and take moment... Listen to a track from the album called El Peregrino here.The line-up:Adrián Escamilla: tenor sax, bassoonSusanne Alt: alto+soprano saxNicolás Santella: pianoAgustin Bernal: bassJuan Ale Saenz: drumsFor more info about Adrián please go to his Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/adrinescamillajazzquartetHe sent me a couple of cd's, if you want one, please use the contact form. I will personally reply to you with instructions how to get one! :-)If you want to get in touch with Adrián please also let me know then I get you in touch with him.By the way, he also has a pizza restaurant on Mexico City: Pizza Jazz Cafe!18-01-2012Hereby we officially can confirm that Booking Agency O-Tone Music contracted Susanne Alt+ Band. Here's the link to her artist profile on their site, filed under Jazz, Funk, Fusion: Susanne Alt @ O-Tone Music.O-Tone Music also books very favourite artists of Susanne like: Pee Wee Ellis, Bill Evans, Billy Cobham, Dave Weckl, Tania Maria, Enrico Pieranunzi, Dr Lonnie Smith, Tuck and Patti etc etc.. Just have a look: O-Tone Music ArtistsGood stuff!10-01-2012I just received the paper wallet sleeves for the promo versions of the new album... Looks fantastic! Photographer Hester Doove and Egbert Luijs, responsible for the design, both did a great job!04-01-2012I wish all of you a happy and healthy new year! Enjoy what you do and make sure you turn fantasy into reality...Right now we are working on release dates of the new jazz album. Probably the release in BeNeLux will be in march and Germany, Austria, Switzerland end of march or beginning of april.. Stay tuned!Here a song about fantasy and reality by Parliament :-)http://youtu.be/gF23MveEFkA/09-12-2011Dear all,almost the end of the year. For me it was and still is an exciting one.. releasing "Live at Bimhuis", travelling to Mexico, recording an album there with Adrián Escamilla, performing a lot, working on a new Susanne Alt studio album which will be released in april 2012. Infact, I worked on 4 albums this year, including recordings for a more funk(y) album which will take a bit more time, to be released in the future. Right now we are finishing off the mastering as well as the album cover of the new jazz album which will be released in april. At the same time we are booking concerts in little venues for the cd-release tour in april/may. And we started talking to jazz festivals for the summer.I am also very happy to announce cooperation with O-Tone Music, a booking agency/ labelmanagement. We are looking forward to organize a tour in autumn 2012 in Germany. O-Tone will be my exclusive booking agency for Germany, Austria, Switzerland.If you have any questions, please don't hesitate and contact either me (use contact form) or for Germany, Austria, Switzerland O-Tone. http://www.o-tonemusic.de/Wishing you happy holidays already and I 'll be back with new year wishes!31-08-2011Dear all,I had a very nice summer, I hope you had one, too! I mean, the weather was nothing, I am still waiting for the summer to come but... I worked hard on the recordings and met some new people:During a gig with DJ Maestro on a festival called Jazz at the lake I met a band called Euro Cinema . Unfortunately it was raining very hard and all the visitors eventualy went home, slowly but surely; but it had one advance: I got to hang out with other bands, and mainly Euro Cinema. They asked me to sit in with them, and so I did. We had an instant musical click and came to the conclusion that we would have to meet again and rehearse and play sometimes together. Said and done, we played already 2 gigs together and actually one more at the beach but that was because I spontaniously popped by. This is the band: http://www.euro-cinema.com/ The music is 60's hammond funk, own compositions and a few covers. If you follow this link you can see all the video's we put online: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=euro+cinema+susanne+alt&aq=f I am sure we will have more concerts in the future!And there was the "Uitmarkt", the opening of the Dutch cultural season. The national tv, NTR/Ned 2, had approached me to film a bit and ask a few questions for the program Kunststof. Well... It became a whole big fat item! I was performing together with my band: Thijs Cuppen on piano, Sven Schuster, bass and Eran Har Even on guitar and as special guest Jamal Thomas, the drummer of S.O.S. Band and Maceo Parker. It was a big honor to have him with me because he's been one of my favourite drummers since I started to experience jazz and funk. He happens to live in Belgium these days. The tv program filmed the whole performance, but also interviewed Jamal Thomas about me and they also filmed my gig later that evening together with DJ Maestro. They all broadcasted it in a live interview with me, I was truly surprised.. it turned out to be an item of 10 minutes instead of 2 minutes..... On national tv, saturday night!!!It felt like birthday and christmas and queensday and cd release party alltogether. Within NL you can watch it at: http://beta.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1109823And I have some additional recording for my new projects coming up so life definitely won't become boring, believe me!Stay tuned! Greetings, Susanne26-07-2011Finally I found time to work on the recording we've made a while ago! We recorded 12 tunes, 9 tunes are getting there. We recorded 6-8 versions of almost every song so I have to listen through all of it and choose which version and which solo's and how long, or if I should keep a long and a short version...To be released in spring 2012.It's great work, but also hard because it's self-reflection an being very aware of what I really want to hear on my album and making choices... Then sometimes i have to repair some wrong notes we played in the melodies or if I combine 2 versions to make sure that there are no glitches and tic's. I will keep you posted! I am also looking forward to the mexican cd which is already mastered, now they are working on the cover and all of that.I hope you have a great inspiring holiday and have time to spend with your loved ones and /or the things you relly want to do!All the best!Susanne03-05-2011The Jazzahead, the trade fair for the international jazz scene took place last weekend in Bremen, Germany. I was there for the third time; it takes place every year. I have to say every time I go there, I become better in knowing what I want and especially who I want to talk to. This time I focussed on labels because my label Venus Tunes and I are looking for a partner in Germany to release my new studio album at. I had a couple of fruitful conversations and some will follow during may, one label did not attend the Jazzahead but I will meet them at the middle of the month. Why are we looking for a partner? Because Venus Tunes is doing very fine in BeNeLux and it's time to expand towards our neighbour countries! We are quite successful here so I am sure together with a fair and knowledgeable partner we can rock, or pardon me... jazz... those music lovers all over the place, not only in the Netherlands. I also had an interview with Jazzthetik, I think it will be issued in june. It was great to finally meet the guys who write for it, somehow I never got the chance. Also I got to read a fantastic review in Jazzpodium and the redaction of Jazzthing told me that they will also write a piece about "Live At Bimhuis". I will have to update the press section anyway, we got so many reviews and I haven't had time yet to type it over and put it online... to be continued.Good! That's it for now, I have to continue working on the new album which is recorded already but a lot of editing has to be done to make it a funky, catchy and crispy, juicy jazzalbum.......Hope to see you at one of our concerts and feel free to contact me for bookings and collaborations!21-04-2011I came back from Mexico on monday, I had a fantastic time there! As I told you before, Adrián Escamilla had invited me to come over to Mexico City for teaching, performing and recording. It turned out that he wanted me to play on all his tunes; initially I thought I would be a guest on some tunes only. But hey.. the more tunes, the more fun.. The musicians are some of the top jazz musicians of the country, and played on a very high artistic level, it was great to play with them!Line-up:Adrián Escamilla: tenor sax, soprano sax, bassoonSusanne Alt: alto sax, soprano saxNicolas Santella: pianoAgustín Bernal: double bassJuanale Saenz: drumsAdrián is aiming to release the album by the end of this year (2011). I can't wait!So the first week we were spending rehearsing the new material and also performing in a place called "We Are Polanco".I sat in at the bigband of Victor Guzman at the musician's union at Grand Forum and was teaching a bit and did an interview with UNAM radio. My boyfriend and I had a some time to visit Mexico City, which is so amazing! Places I've been to are: Casa Azul (Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacan), the center of Coyoacan, Central de Abasto (one of the 2 big whole sale markets of Mexico City), photo shoot for the cd at the Ciudad Universitaria, Teotihuacán, Soumaya- Museum, Lagunilla Market, and of course a lot of Diego Rivera work as well as José Clemente Orozco which I didn't know before but actually like a lot. Their wall paintings are all over the historical city. Of course we went to the site of Templo Mayor and the fantastic museum.I will not bore you with all my experiences at the sites, just that every place I've been too was very much worth it. I like the sense of humor which seems to be everywhere. I like the approach to work hard but having a big laugh once in a while. Oh and by the way: I always felt very safe! I have been warned by almost everybody but as long as you do normal tourist things or have a local with you, let the restaurant call a taxi instead of stopping one in the streets there's no problem. Ok, I live in Amsterdam , so I am always used to watch my back and my bags... But it doesn't feel more dangerous than Amsterdam, Istanbul.. cities with many people in narrow streets or markets, you just know that you have to watch out, that's all. If you get the chance, visit this city, it's fantastic. Can't wait to come back and maybe see some more of the rest of the country.04-03-2011We are working on club dates in autumn as well as the first options for 2012 are starting to come... stay tuned!02-03-2011I have been invited to come to Mexico City in april for 2 weeks! Saxophone player Adrian Escamilla approached me already in 2009 after watching video's of my band via Youtube. After long mailing and thinking of a concept Adrian invited me now to come over to record an album with him, to perform and teach. I will keep you updated! I am looking forward to it!11-02-2011The photo's of 14-10-2010 at Bimhuis are online now! The most photo's are taken by Esther Duijn, marked with an E plus a number. Other photo's are taken by Bas Cuppen, marked with a B and a number and not to forget Robert Glass, marked with a R and a number.The idea was to not only make pictures for the cd cover but also have pictures of the audience because it's a lice recording with live audience. the initial idea was also to put the pictures into the cd but then I thought it would be a shame to make all the pictures so small so in the end you can't recognize yourseld anymore.If you want to have one or more pictures, please send me a mail (use the contact form) with the exact number of the picture and then i can send it to you via e-mail.All the best!!Susanne11-02-2011Hereby I am very happy to tell you that the album "Live At Bimhuis" is officially released!!!! You can order it here at this website (use the order form), you can order it via bol.com and buy it at your cd shop within Benelux.Outside Benelux, the cd is available though Bertus distribution which is a Dutch, but big distributor with a worldwide reach. The order number/barcode is:) 8716773002609Outside Europe, within short time "Live At Bimhuis" will be available at ITunes, Spotify and physically via CDBaby, like our other cd's. I'll let you know when it's ready!
03-02-2011We are happy to announce a last minute pre-release concert: 08-02-2011 at Jazzcafe Dizzy, Rotterdam at 22h!LIVE AT BIMHUIS became Radio 6 week cd, that's fantastic news because it's the dutch public dutch radio station for soul and jazz and it's an honor to be elected by the music editorial people! This is the link for the dutch article:http://weekcd.radio6.nl/2011/01/31/week-cd-live-at-bimhuis-van-susanne-alt/and this is the direct link to listen to the cd:http://luisterpaal2.radio6.nl/page/player/449 Hope to see you at one of my upcoming shows.All the best! Susanne26-01-2011Susanne Alt Quartet LIVE AT BIMHUIS available now.funky modern souljazz on a double cd!Susanne Alt, well-known for her funky sound, played at Bimhuis, Amsterdam (october 14th, 2010) with her band. Bimhuis is the most famous jazz venue in the Netherlands. The Susanne Alt Quartet has played there many times before so now it was time to record there as the acoustic is great and the sound technicians knowledgable. This concert of october 14th, has been put 1:1 on a double cd, the listener actually puts on the first and the second set, so it's a proper live registration. Weeks before, fans were able to vote their favourite tunes of the bands' repertoire to be added on the set list via social media polls. Considering the outcome and also the tunes the band felt most comfortable with, they played the best of everything!Availibility:Right now the cd is available through Bertus Distribution, which means: You should be able to order the cd at any cd shop in Benelux and Bol.com. It's in the Benelux data base.You are also welcome to order it right here on the website: BUY CDWe will keep you updated, hopefully we will be able to add some good reviews, too, soon.04-01-2011please check my "concerts" section regularly, new concerts will be added every couple of days! I hope to come to your town as well!all the best! see you then!susanne27-11-2010Time flies when you are having fun... so much stuff is happening.. Since the summer we have been working on a new website as you can see, we hope you like it!In september i've been to Asia for the first time ever, to Thailand to be precise. Alexander Beets and Saskia Laroo took us, a bunch of band leaders from Holland to Samui Jazz Festival and to Bangkok Jazz Festival organised by Hitman Jazz. It was a great experience because normally we musicians never have time to get together for such an amount of time and to get to know each other's tunes. And we met many nice Thai people and many of us, the musicians from Holland will have our cd's released in Thailand. I hope i'll get the chance to tour there again. Thai people are very friendly and seemed to like our music. I liked the vibe of them, their food and hospitality.In october my band and i recorded the -to be released- live album at Bimhuis, Amsterdam. It was a very pleasant evening, everything just went fine and i am very satisfied with the recordings. The band consisting of Thijs Cuppen, Sven Schuster and Philippe Lemm, played fantastic stuff and I am sure you will love it! Right now i am in the middle of listening and mixing the live album which will be released in february 2011.At the same time i am recording new tunes again for the next studio album. Today we had our first day, tomorrow and monday still to go. I am working on bookings for 2011, focussing on Germany and France, Julia Schorestene will work on France for my band, I hope we can have a little tour there when the live album is out. It looks like in april I will go to Mexico City for some weeks to record a cd with a great mexican saxophone player. I met him on internet, he discovered me via Youtube. Lots of plans, more to come, just wanted to give you a short update... All the best!! Susanne20-10-2010 We are checking our all the new functions of the new site... to be continued..10-08-2010Dear all,

currently we are working on a new website! Just a little bit more patience please! hopefully within a few weeks the site will be online. In the meantime: don't hesitate and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Youtube!03-02-2010Hey all,

2009 was smashing and i am very curious what 2010 will bring.. first of all in march I will go to New York City for meetings, recordings, gigs and inspiration. Then, with my own band we will do some concerts in collaboration with www.jazzonstage.nl in The Netherlands. There will be a new cd-recording which is to be released beginning of 2011. I will assist director Inna van den Hogen (Opera aan het Ij) with music for "Rhapsody",premiere in autumn. In october/november there are some plans to go to India and Mexico.. hopefully I will be able to tell you more about it, soon!
We added new video's at: http://www.youtube.com/venustunes and keep an eye open for new concert dates which will be added continuosly.

Wishing you all the best!
Susanne22-06-2009Dear all,

Thanks for nominating the Susanne Alt Quartet for the Edison Jazzism Readers Poll 2009. The album “On Track” featuring Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight is now amongst the 10 albums the jazz audience likes most! ("Jazzism" is a dutch jazz magazine.)

We are very happy that not jut the critics and journalists like ”On Track” but also the audience. That’s actually what it’s about! We seem to be right “On Track”...

Up to now the nomination process was only for people living in Holland but now you can vote also from abroad. The voting form is in Dutch, but actually it’s easy to understand. Please click here >>

You can vote until 15th of august. At the beginning of september we will know if we go into the final.. Of course I will let you know!02-04-2009- Susanne Alt at North Sea Jazz Festival and IJAZZ Amsterdam
- More distribution for the cd's!

Officially it just has been confirmed that the Susanne Alt Quartet will perform at the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival as well as the second edition of IJAZZ Amsterdam.

Susanne Alt released her third album "On Track" in february at Venus Tunes. This cd got a lot of media attention in the Netherlands while waiting for international reviews. This month Susanne signed an agreement with Bertus Distribution. This means that not only "On Track", but also "Delight" and "Nocturne" are available now at every recordshop in the world.. Well, we don't blame shops if they don't have us in the shells but the meaning is that people at least can order it at every shop.

Online: All CD's are available through Bol.com, iTunes, CD-Baby.10-02-2009Dear people,
thanks for coming to Bimhuis and making it an unforgettable and breathtaking evening! For those who were not there:
Saturday, february 7th, 2009, was our release concert of our third album "On Track".
Line Up:
Thijs Cuppen: piano, fender rhodes and keyboards
Sven Schuster: double bass
Philippe Lemm: drums
Susanne Alt: soprano and alto sax and a bit of flute.
SPECIAL GUEST: Bruno Speight.
The cd is available now via the website!
Click on "Buy CD's" and follow the menu!

Now I am focussing on my preparation for the concerts with Fred Wesley in Amsterdam and France... I hope to see you there!
Greetings,
Susanne06-01-2009Happy New Year everybody!
We were working hard to finish our new cd "On Track". We will celebrate this with a full-length concert 07th of february 20.30h at Bimhuis, Amsterdam. It is on a saturday because I always get complaints from people with a regular job that my nicest concerts are at impossible days and hours.
Line-Up:

Susanne Alt all saxes
Thijs Cuppen piano, keys
Sven Schuster: double bass
Philippe Lemm: drums

special guest:
Bruno Speight: guitar

The cd consists of original compositions of all members of the band. We had 2 very special guests on the cd: trombone player Fred Wesley and guitar player Bruno Speight Bruno Speight will also perform with us in Bimhuis. MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR TICKET IN TIME: WWW.BIMHUIS.NL

EVEN MOR GOOD NEWS:

Fred Wesley asked me to replace his saxophone player in his own band at a couple of concerts! This will also be in February!
I will post the tour dates online as soon as they are confirmed.

x
Susanne16-07-2008So much happened laast couple of months! I didn’t even had time to update this site and tell you what I was doing!
I was performing as much in the last 4 months as I would do in almost a year in 2007, went to Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Bonaire, Curacao, Denmark, played a lot of festivals with DJ Maestro, Wicked Jazz Sounds, and also the Susanne Alt Quartet. We enjoyed the enthousiasm of small clubs in Belgium and Germany, and the interest at the Jazzahead in Bremen where we had a showcase. I enjoyed strolling throught the streets of Sofia and Copenhagen and relaxing in Bonaire….
We’ve put a lot of video films on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/venustunes

The Susanne Alt Quartet recorded a new cd in june and july which will be out at some point at the end of this year. As on the first 2 cd’s we only have original compositions of the band members which of course include:
Thijs Cuppen, Piano, keys
Sven Schuster, double bass
Philippe Lemm, drums
And me on alto and soprano sax and a bit of flute.

I am very proud and happy to announce that 2 very special guests joined us for some tunes:

Bruno Speight, guitar player of Maceo Parker and original member of the S.O.S. Band. Killer rhythm guitar player.
His Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/brunospeight

AND:

Fred Wesley, the funkiest trombone player on earth.
His website: http://www.funkyfredwesley.com
Make sure you buy the book he wrote: “Hit me Fred: Recollections of a sideman”. It’s available on sites like Amazon.com and Bol.com. It’s all written by himself (no ghost writer), in a very touching and also very funny way. He gives you a very personal insight of the bands he performed with.

I am still speechless that those 2 world class musicians were joining us. It feels like telling some kind of wicked lie, can you imagine?
So we will have some editing and mixing to do in august and then I hope to get everybody together for a nice cd-release tour at the end of the year or beginning of 2009.

Stay tuned,
Love,
Susanne11-02-2008Time flies! It’s just a couple of months ago since the release of my second cd and I am already working on the repertoire of my third cd. I want to record it in May and release it in autumn this year. I am still thinking about special guests, I am sure I’ll surprise you…and myself, too.
I am so thankful for all the great feedback from audience, friends and critics about the last cd and the concerts we were doing up to now.

I am very happy to tell you that the “Susanne Alt Quartet” gets more and more gigs, so please keep checking my agenda regularly, and also keep an eye on my agenda on Myspace. Right now, the webmaster works on a easier solution to put the dates online quicker… The best thing is to check both, the agenda on this site AND on myspace: www.myspace.com/susannealt
Just to remind you: There you can listen to tracks and watch video clips and sometimes I write a blog about a special event.

There are some graet concerts coming up also with other people I play with: DJ Maestro, Wicked Jazz Sounds, Jazz Juice (with DJ Graham B) and at this moment I am doing some gigs with bass player Phaedra Kwant and japanese piano player Yuichiro Aratake and we are already talking about a reprise tour in Japan next year. His website is: www.aratake.net
I will do many gigs in Holland, Germany, and I am hoping that the options I have will happen: Bonaire and Curacao, Vienna (A), Copenhagen (DK), Varna (BUL), Gdynska (POL) and I am still in connection with the jazz club in Hong Kong but unfortunately the owner had some logistic problems.
Life is so exciting and it’s so good to see that stuff is happening! This will be another wild year!

Love,
Susanne16-10-2007Dear people,

thanks for being at the release concert at Bimhuis 20th of september. It was a great experience and it wouldn't have been possible without all of you. Almost every seat was taken and I sold many cd's.
For the ones who want to look and listen back, go to my links-page on this site and click on: Susanne Alt Quartet at Bimhuis 20-09-07 Audio and Video. VPRO was so kind to record it and you can listen to the whole evening, and also an extra hour of favourite music I put together. There's 3 video clips online, too.
Within Europe you can order the cd "Delight" and of course also still "Nocturne" via this website, just click on the order-link.
If you don't want to order it online and you live in Holland go to the page on my site with all the shops in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Breda.
If you live outside of europe you'll have to be a bit patient, it will be available via Itunes, CD-Baby etc, I'll let you know.

Right now we are updating this homepage, just come by sometimes and you'll see that we'll add reviews, photo's, concerts and other updates.

Love,
Susanne11-09-2007Just a little over a week and Delight, the brand new cd of the Susanne Alt Quartet, will be released at Bimhuis in Amsterdam!!

As of right now you can already find more information on Delight on the website. You also have the chance to pre-order Delight which means you will get it as soon as it's released!!

We will release audio samples of the cd on the site this week, so make sure you keep an eye on it!. I hope to see you all at Bimhuis in 9 days!!

X
Susanne25-07-2007In the week before North Sea Jazz Festival a mail reached me from my Myspace-friend DJ Aphreme from Poland. I’ve recorded a tune with him a few months ago. He was approached by a club scene promoter: if he would know a female sax player so they ended up with me. His name is Alphonse. He wanted a female sax player to play in Beirut at a party and it had to be fast!! If I could make it the weekend of july 13th. No, of course not because I had to play twice already at North Sea Jazz. If I could make it the week after. I was able to shift my appointments. Oh yes and if I knew a nice male saxophone player as well who could come with me and play one of the 2 gigs with me. After looking at websites of my sax friends and looking at their agenda’s and calling a few I found Cyrille Oswald. I met him a few years ago at the Dutch Jazz Competition. We were both in the final and had a nice little chat after performing. That’s it, further I didn’t know him.

Alphonse later explained to me that people in Beirut have to plan last minute because of the political situation which is stable at the moment but you never know exactly. What they know is definetely: Party party party as long as you can!!

Thurday 19th was a travel day, Friday I soundchecked and practised with dj Georgio and they explained to me that I had to play on a crane outside the building which would become erased to the same lecvel as the roof top bar… I can tell you it was kind of scary. I am not afraid of heights but yes, a crane, standing freely outside a building, about 10 meters away from the actual building… okay… to make my appearance even more special they installed fireworks on the crane. So imagine, somebody slightly neurotic like me being put into the situation of a) being on a meterhigh crane and b) having fireworks around me…that’s nightmare stuff, first fall then burn etc etc.. I have a rich fantasy. Well. It worked of course and it was a big succes. I just never had such shaky knees before in my life.

Next day, Saturday, the same procedure exept from Cyrille being on another crane and playing with me along the dj. It also worked. Of course. The party people were mainly Lebanese people which live abroad because of the political situation and enjoy summer in their hometown and visiting family. Skybar is one of the places to be in town, even Fashion TV Arabia came along and filmed us and the party people. At clubs like the Sky Bar money seems not to be an issue and beautiful women, beautifully dressed are average. I’ve never seen so many fasionable and well-taken-care-of women especially in a such big concentration as at Sky Bar. Men are ok, too, but women really stand out. That were the gigs, 2 nights playing a set on the crane with dj and fireworks.

Cyrille’s and my flight was Tuesday night so we still had a lot of time to see some of the country. Sunday I went to the beautiful beach at the city and read a book. Later that evening we went into the old town of Beirut, beautiful and well-rebuilt. We had some nice cocktails and met some nice people. Monday Alphonse took us to his parents’ house and at noon we went to the east to visit Baalbek, the oldest roman ruin ever found. We met some very friendly local people which introduced us to local habits and food. We enjoyed the beautiful valleys we drove by and finished the evening at the countyside house of Alphonse’s family with a lot of great food and Arak, the Lebanese drink.
Tuesday we went to a beautiful beach oasis north of Beirut, it was a kind of an insider tip, no fashionables and fancy people, just very down to earth ones.
We swam and played saxophone for Alphonse’s friends and had some more food and Arak and took the plane back home.

I learned that nothing is like it seems in Lebanon, that non-lebanese people can’t understand and judge on the politics. It’s a great country, there is fantastic food and drink and very lovely people. It’s so european and so arabic and so mediterranean and so different and people are rich and poor and party or don’t party at all, are politically involved or not at all. Very outspoken. Holland and Germany don’t have that extreme opposites, people and habits are a lot more mellow and similar.
As you can see it was a very interesting trip!
Stay tuned for video clips, I will post it soon at Youtube. Just type: susanne alt skybar beirut, and then you should find something….
Peace,
Susanne16-07-2007North Sea Jazz Festival 2007
It was fantastic. I played there 3 times: With DJ Maestro (featuring Lex Empress (vocals), Lennaert (keys), and Femke Krone (perc)), as a guest with Wicked Jazz Sounds (feat. Berenice van Leer and Paul van Kessel (both voc), Gilian Baracs (keys), and Laurens Priem (git)) and with the Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra.

On first day I stepped out of the train at Rotterdam Central Station and who did I see stepping out of the Thalys? Johnny Griffin! He needed some help getting to the taxi and I was glad to be able to help this saxophone giant.
Friday I also went to the musicians after-session where I got to jam with Marcus Miller, Roy Hargrove and many more great people. I got to talk with some of my musical heroes such as Rodney Skeet Curtis, Dennis Chambers and Kirk Whalum.
I got surprised by a great female saxophone player I didn’t know yet. Sunday I stood talking to some friend, tired, not knowing which concert we should check out, we walked into the hall where Randy Brecker played and there she was: Ada Rovatti, a fantastic tenor player playing “Sponge”, my favourite tune by the Brecker Brothers!!!

And I saw the backstage arrival and depart of Sly from a 3 meter distance. It was a crazy circus with loads of photographers, camera men, famous musicians who couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of mysterious Sly.
Snoop Dogg played right after Sly so I saw him arriving, too. He’s the coolest of all. He’s the only man on earth who looks cool with 2 braids and a (I call it) soup dress..

What more could I wish? I can’t think of anything. It’s been an incredible experience and I am already looking forward to next years’s North Sea Jazz festival.

X
Susanne10-04-2007The new cd is recorded and mixed!
I am very happy with the result. You'll have to wait some time until it's released: We just got the official confirmation from Bimhuis to have a cd-release concert there! So make sure to write down in your agenda:

20th of september, 21h, Bimhuis, Amsterdam.

I'll keep you updated about the process...
x
Susanne31-01-2007Hi everybody,
Finally we set a recording date for the new cd, it's going to be beginning
of april. Hopefully I can release the record in september/october
depending on the schedule of my favourite jazz venue, Bimhuis. I really
would love to have my release concert and party in there... I'll keep you
updated!
x
Susanne22-11-2006I am going to replace jan Kooper (http://www.jankooper.com) for a couple of gigs on his tour with Willeke Alberti (http://willekealberti.nl). Justgot the music yesterday and now I have to practise the tunes... I am sure it'll be fun to do the gigs, there's some really great musicians playingin the band.

Stay tuned... I am working on some interesting stuff but it's too early to tell you yet.
x
Susanne25-08-2006Yesterday the Susanne Alt Quartet had a gig at Alto where we played all new material. It was very refreshing to play new band compositions!
Klaas van Donkersgoed, our previous drummer has left the band a few weeks ago because he wants to develop his own music. Fortunately I found a new drummer which is at least joining us for the next couple of gigs: Steve Altenberg from New York! He lived in Amsterdam before. Then he moved back to New York and now he again lives in Amsterdam because he’ll be teaching drums at the Conservatory of Groningen (NL). You’ll find more information about him if you search him on the internet. He has a weblog on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stevealtenberg
There you’ll find some of his music.
For those who live in Holland: Don’t miss the gigs with the “Tribute to Bob Marley” Band. You can find the dates in my “concerts” section.
Take care….
Susanne26-07-2006The Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra (with a.o.me on 2nd tenor) won the BigbandFestival Concours in Alkmaar! So it appears to be a lucky bigband! 2competitions won within a couple of weeks!
During the last year the bigband was applying for some funds and we gotone for recording a cd. Great!

I'll work on some music and hopefully the Susanne Alt Quartet will be ableto record a new record in autumn!!!

Have a nice summer!
greetings,
Susanne06-07-2006The Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra won the Bigband Competition in Enschede!In this band I play tenor sax. Check out my agenda for new dates. In thelink section you also find a link to the website of the bigband.25-04-2006I just discovered MySpace a few weeks ago and I have to say that it’s great! Become a member and you can become friends with a lot of great musicians and music lovers. I uploaded some music which you probably don’t know yet and if you check out my video clips you can see some live performances of me. You only have to become member to see it.Membership is free.
Go to: http://www.myspace.com
Find me on: http://www.myspace.com/susannealt
Enjoy!
Susanne15-03-2006Yesterday I had a green screen shoot for WickedJazzSounds. What’s that? I can imagine that not everybody knows what it is… Maybe some of you have seen “The Making of” of some movies where people can fly, jump 50 meters high or things like that. They first film actors with a green or blue background and put them later into the actual background and scenery you see in the movie. The VJ’s of WickedJazzSounds will make a compilation of all the shoots of every artist and “mix” it with different frames and backgrounds. The miracle is that the green or blue background will disappear…they use this colors as a contrast and to give us a healthy tan I guess…I hope I explained it well, haha! The result of it will be displayed on the 3 big screens at the weekly gig at Sugar Factory. Curious? Come and see (&dance&listen) every Sunday to Sugar Factory (www.sugarfactory.nl). Next time I play there is April 9th.19-01-2006Hi there,
The Ivo Niehe tv program thing on Talpa is now definitely happening, the Ivo Niehe Theater Show Band will join him on several dates, not all of them though. I don’t know the exact times yet but I guess it’ll be anyway on Thursday and then in the evening. Check your TV Guide or the internet for more information.Here’s a list of dates where we probably play:
“Ivo op Donderdag”
26-01-06
02-02-06
09-02-06
02-03-06
16-03-06
30-03-06
13-04-06
The show is going to be recorded at Nieuwe De La Maar Theater in Amsterdam. Nice for me because I can go there within 10 minutes by bike. It’s possible that we join him more often but those dates seem to be fixed…. You never know, it’s television… always last minute decisions…On the theater tour I played alto sax, soprano sax, flute and electric bass and the funny thing is that we probably always will play the song where I played bass!!!!!! Susanne Alt on bass! That’s different…haha….I hope to get a chance to play my sax as well… you and I will see! Check it out!
Love,
Susanne06-01-2006Happy new year!
I finished the theater tour with Ivo Niehe, but he has plans for a TV show on Talpa. It’s not very clear yet but it seems that he wants the band also on TV which he used in the theaters. That would be an excellent start into the new year!
12th of January at 21.00h the theater show will be broadcasted on Talpa!!!!!(It was recorded at December 22nd in Drachten. Also go to: www.detheatershow.nl to get more details about the whole thing.
There are also plans for a new theater tour in fall but let’s see how things develop…
Technically the DVD of my concert at the (old) Bimhuis is finished, now we still have to design a cover and bring it to the press. Editing it took a while because some laptops crashed and there were difficulties with the sound. Well, we fixed it and there it comes…I hope to be able to present the DVD within … let’s say 2 months.
I started finishing unfinished tunes and ideas to get another record out. One of the things I want to do this year… and which I promised to myself is going to the studio and make a second record. Keep it going!
That’s a good sentence for you all and everyone in 2006 I hope:
Keep things going…
X
Susanne20-10-2005We have published new photos ! Click here to visit the gallery.19-09-2005What’s new… ? Within the next few days we’ll put a couple of new photo’s online… it’s a mix of different gigs I did during the summer, mostly taken by Moos with my or his flashy mobile phone which has a 2.0 mega pixel camera. That’s why some pictures are not 100% sharp but it was about the atmosphere and not about the perfect shot. I hope you don’t mind… it’s about what’s on the photo…Maybe it’ll inspire some of you photographers to come by and take some professional pictures…. ;-) You are always welcome!
Well I had a good summer break. Between end of July and middle of august I didn’t do so much except from relaxing; I had a busy year. We played a couple of times with the band, also at Uitmarkt in Amsterdam, the annual festival where performing artists show a part of their show as preview on the new season. AT5 made a little special about me; I played a ballad with Sven Schuster and I had a little interview.
“My” drummer, Klaas van Donkersgoed, went to study in New York and I find that a pity. He’s supposed to come back at the end of December and I hope he enjoys it there! Some other drummers will replace him, for example Joost Kesselaar.
The rehearsals with Ivo Niehe have started and it’s turning out more and more how exactly the show is going to be. It’s a very interesting progress. It gives me the possibility to contribute to all the arrangements and to manage to switch between playing 4 instruments: flute, soprano sax, alto sax and electric bass.

The summer is almost over, I thought it would be nice to put some of my favorite going- out-spots on a line:
I was glad to hear that the New Cool Collective bigband starts to play again once a month at a location; they start 17th of October at the “Sugar Factory”, Amsterdam. It’s a very cool band and I always used to go to Meander, where they used to play every 2 weeks. If you can, check it out! Also on Mondays: the jam session at Old Quarter at the Warmoestraat, Amsterdam.
And nice, too: the Wicked Jazz Sounds Sessions every Sunday at Sugar Factory, starting at 0.00h.
The jam sessions at Café Museum (Saturdays at 15.00h) and Engelbewaarder( Sundays at 16.30h) started again; they had a summer break. Café Alto is always a good place to go to… sometimes the band s are amazing or famous musicians are joining the band after just having played at the Paradiso…
Besides from music: Not to forget the “Brouwerij ‘t Ij” at the windmill in Amsterdam East where you can drink the most tasty beer. Try “Zatte”! It makes you happy. They are open Wednesday-Sunday from 15.30-19.15h. I guess they invented those strange opening times to avoid hardcore alcoholics…

Now it’s time to pick up everything again and write new music, think about the next record… of course I’ll keep you updated!

Take it easy…
X
Susanne09-07-2005North Sea Jazz Festival, for the last time in The Hague. I am very pleased that our group has been invited to participate. It’s the cream on the cake (is that correct?… but I guess you understand what I mean) on my efforts I made during the last year. I played at the Spiegeltent, a nice podium with an incredible sound engineer. After my concert, Hans Dijkstal invited me to play in his radio show with a great band, consisting of: Jasper Soffers, Joris Teepe and Erik Kooger. He also interviewed me and I was very pleased to be in his show between all the big stars. We filmed everything and I hope to be able to put some video clips of my performances online soon. You all take care! Keep visiting my site!
Susanne02-06-2005Dear people,
Last time I posted a message was when I just got a new appartment and I thought I would be living there after 2-3 weeks cleaning and painting. But since I have so many window frames and a new wooden floor which had to be painted I am still working on it. What drives me crazy is that I thought it would be much less work! We spent so much time just removing old ugly dark red, purple and pink frame paint that it was a crime. But now I start to see te results. In the end I get something back for it....a beautful and peaceful place to live.
What’s new:
We are currently working on mastering the sound of the dvd which will hopefully be released before July, I’ll keep you updated.
Because of the whole renovation procedure I didn’t really keep my website updated. Hereby are some new dates.
You all take care... and please keep visiting my site!
xxx Susanne13-04-2005Latest news:
I will play at the North Sea Jazz Festival In The Hague this year!!! It's a big honour for me because it's the last time the festival will be held in The Hague; next year they are going to move to Rotterdam. As I've been visiting the festival for 10 years now I feel very proud after already having participated in the final of the Dutch Jazz Competition in 2004 on North Sea Jazz to perform there with my group for real!!! Date and time of course to be announced...

I am going to do a theater tour between with famous tv presentator Ivo Niehe between september and december 2005. Soon the first dates will be online as well.

Whatelse... finally I found a permanent place in Amsterdam, the city I love but...everybody who ever tried to live there knows how hard it is to find an appartment which is affordable and permanent. Everybody who tried to live in this beautiful city has some nightmare stories and so do I. It's a big relief I can tell!!! Right now I spend every free moment in renovating, steaming off the wallpaper and nice stuff like that...I have support from people with good vibe.

15th of april is my birthday. I share this with 2 very close friends of mine so I am sure I will have a good time.
Everything is fine... life is good to me and I enjoy it. I hope you guys enjoy, too!

Greetings,
Susanne05-03-2005Dear friends,
Time flies…finally we have the photo’s online and new ones will follow, soon.
I got a lot of press attention and I am still working on a way to get it online…I hope you guys from the Netherlands saw the article in “Het Parool/PS van de week” about German jazz musicians living in Amsterdam (written by Robert Slagt, photo’s by Klaas Fopma) and the article in the “cultuursupplement “ of the “NRC Handelsblad” (written by Amanda Kuyper, photo’s by Vincent Mentzel). I’ll try to find somebody who can scan it in and put it online after I’ll get back from the tour with Insa Rudolph. A good review of “”Nocturne has been published in the march edition of the German jazz magazine “Jazzpodium” I’ve been told; I haven’t read it myself yet but I’ll add it to the site when I am back.
We changed the category “Reviews” to: “Press” which is divided in “Reviews” and “Articles/ Interviews”.
In the new part “Articles/Interviews” you can read a portrait which was published by the Austrian magazine “Concerto” (written by Martin Schuster).
The dvd is almost finished. We only have to master the sound now and think of a nice cover…it’ll be out before the summer.
What else is coming up: We are working on some brand new compositions written by ourselves and probably at the end of 2005/beginning of 2006 we can record a new cd.

One more thing: Don’t be so shy and leave me a note in my guest book…! I like to get reactions on my stuff. If I don’t like a comment I simply take it off ;-)!
Take care and see you soon.25-01-2005Dear friends,
I just want to keep you guys up to date what I’ve been doing the last weeks:
I had 2 great concerts with pop singer Do where I was replacing the sax player who was on holiday. New years eve I played with Brickhouse which was great fun, I love the band members! At the beginning of January I went for 2 weeks to New York City to catch up with old friends and to see some concerts such as: Shirley Horn, Jeff Tain Watts Quartet featuring Joe Locke and Ravi Coltrane, James Carter Organ Trio, Stefon Harris Blackout, Christian McBride, Dave Douglas with Han Bennink and Uri Caine, Paul Motian, Robert Glasper Trio, Branford Marsalis Quartet and many more… I got very inspired to see so many great musicians in so little time. I feel like composing new music for my band!
If you like jazz here comes a recommendation: Don’t miss the next concert of “Shooster”, the band of “my” bass player Sven Schuster (see link on the link site)!!!! I heard them play 23th of January in Purmerend and this band is so incredible! Pure energy! It’s so great to see 4 extremely musical musicians interact and kick ass! And they are fun guys, too…
2 other tips: The jam session at Café Restaurant Museum, Linnaeusstraat, Amsterdam, every Saturday 15-18h and the jam session at Engelbewaarder, Kloveniersburgwal, Amsterdam, every Sunday 16-19.30h. Both sessions are hosted by Sean Bergin, Jacko Schoonderwoerd and Victor de Boo. I recommend those sessions because they are not boring at all. Normally jam sessions get boring because people just practice their chops in public which is not the meaning of making music.
We are still working on the live dvd. I surely will tell you when it’s out. A photo gallery will be appearing online soon.

We are still in januray so I wish everyone a very happy new year! May all of your wishes come true!
Susanne16-12-2004First concerts for 2005 are now online.30-11-2004Starting today NOCTURNE can be ordered in the United States and Canada through the services of cdbaby.com! Go to www.cdbaby.com/saltquartet to order your copy.03-11-2004Today I was watching the video recordings of my cd release concert. We will make a dvd out of it which probably will be released in spring 2005. What else…I am sending cd’s and info material around the globe to promote our band. And: When photographer Natalie den Hollander gets back from holiday we’ll select some old and new photo’s. In a few weeks I hope to be able to put a little photo gallery online. Keep visiting my site to stay up to date!26-10-2004I am happy!!! Today I got a call from an agency who has been contacted by a Japanese guy who found my record in a shop and wants to sell some home in Japan! Also the records I dropped at record store Concerto in Amsterdam, are sold out so I have to bring some more! So people actually like my music!20-10-2004The first review of "Nocturne" arrived!16-10-2004Dear people,
What’s new:
You can listen to samples of some pieces on my cd here!
You can check out the equipment I am using!
What I’ll do now after the cd-release: Concentrating on practicing again, playing more on my superduper King Super 20 Tenor, dealing with press, hoping to get (good) recensions of the cd, trying to get more gigs with my band and working on new material. This is just to begin with… The cd release went really great though I was really nervous in the beginning. –The whole preparation went so well that I had the feeling that something had to happen during the concert! But I didn’t fall from my high heeled pumps, though my knees were shaking as hell in the first piece we played! The only thing which went wrong was that in the state of mind I was before the concert I gave Sven, the bass player, the charts not in C concert but in Eb or in Bb so I had to sort in out LIVE….poor Sven…it looked like he made a mistake but it has been my fault… Hereby I want to thank everybody who made the whole thing possible, from recording the cd until making this website, taking foto’s , filming the gigs and consulting me when I was and am not sure was to do. Thanks also to the people who help me networking.
Thanks a lot to the people at the radio stations, journalists and record shops for showing interest and being helpful. I also want to thank my friends for distracting me at the right moment and go for a beer or two… PLEASE LEAVE A NOTE OF THE GUEST BOOK! I am always happy to get (fair) feedback! I hope I see many of you at one or more of my following concerts!
Love
Susanne08-10-2004Just a few more days untill the cd release at Bimhuis in Amsterdam. We now have a guestbook online.25-09-2004The Portugal-Tour Between September 8 and 20, I went on tour with the Susanne Alt Quartet. It was a great experience because it’s the first real tour I was on and also the first tour I organized. I’ve been to Lisbon 3 times before so I knew that I only could take care of things to a certain degree because the Portuguese mentality is a different one from the German or the Dutch. Fine….I am glad I knew because otherwise I easily would have panicked a bit…. Everything takes more time in Portugal and probably in other countries also! But you become treated very well and get loads of love. First we played 3 nights at the Hotclube de Jazz in Lisbon where I played 2 ½ years before with a Portuguese band. Hotclube is great because it’s a cozy place where people love jazz. The day after we played at Cervejaria di Camoes in Leiria where appeared that there was a misunderstanding: I thought they’d have a piano or keyboards but they didn’t have one!!! It was my mistake…Ricardo, the programmer of this place fortunately found somebody in town who borrowed us a keuyboard…. Then we had 3 days off, Klaas and Thijs went to the Algarve, the south coast of Portugal for 2 days and Sven and I went for one afternoon up to the castle in Sintra. When you are at the highest point you have a beautiful overview. There’s a forest you can see and it seems enchanted, magic because it’s so dark and the buildings in there look like a vampire place…Probably that’s the reason why you can’t go up the castle hill at night; it’s closed… Next we played at the Centro Cultural de Belem in Lisbon which had an incredibly good acoustic. In the evening I went to Bairro Alto to see a concert of the band Tora Tora, led by Johannes Krieger, trumpet, and Lars Arens, trombone. The result is a incredibly funky Afro-Latin dance music with a lot of winds and great solo’s. That evening the great Portuguese saxophone player Jorge Rais joined them and played a heavy solo. We finished the tour at Projecto Jazz in Pombal with Afonso Pais on bass because Sven had to go back to Holland. Afonso took me for lunch- actually it was breakfast to this lovely restaurant 90km north where I had grilled chicken and he had chicken offal with chicken blood and rice… nice breakfast! But seriously, I ate the best chicken in my life! In the evening we Rudolfo, the club manager took us to a very good restaurant where we ate incredibly good octopus. Yes yes, good food is important! The second night in Pombal ended with a long and wild jam session where we traded instruments, Klaas sang, played piano and played on my soprano sax, I played bass, Thijs played harmonica and drums, and Afonso played piano and drums. We were joined by a jazz lover called Laurienne on piano who seems to go to every single concert of Projecto Jazz. You bet it was big fun!!! Before we flew back to Amsterdam we went back to Lisbon for one night where I caught up with friends. It was a great trip! Now I am back in the cold fall of Amsterdam preparing the cd presentation…10-09-2004Get back to the news when I come back from Portugal, I’ll definitely write a short essay about how the tour was!A new review has arrived! Read it!!!

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