This is a tune called Kalunga Dance, from my latest album Dark Horse, order it here or buy it at a concert, the next one is Brebl, Nijmegen 1 day after my birthday on 16th of April! Hope to see you there!
In this performance, we featured percussionist/vocalist and world citizen Helene Jank. She lived and worked in Brazil for quite a while and I really think it's audible here. I love the way she and the band creates this moment of space within the concert and this is also why - I think - visiting concerts is important because then you get to experience the whole context of the concert. How is the program build up, how does the audience respond and what does music makes you feel.
More info: Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
This is the title track called "Dark Horse". Just as in the album version it features sax and piano solos. It's a pretty wild performance, matching today's start of the Chinese New Year: THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE!
Live at Bimhuis, we added a drum solo. Afterwards, I decided to seperate it from the song and post it as an extra video below. Why not in one video? Because the video would become very very long and experience shows that people will not stick around for longer that 6-7 minutes. Yoràn's free drum solo is actually really great and in this seperate video, the true drum lovers can watch and learn from his drum story telling.
Sometimes people ask me; What are drummers doing in their solos? To give you an idea of what Yoràn is doing in his solo: He starts with a pattern, an idea. He keeps the pattern going and plays variations over it. Then he combines it with soloing over it with call and reponse phrases and slides in new patterns. Technically it's interesting because he demonstrates a lot of independence and speed, as well as dynamics and sound colours, while telling a story, which means in musical context that the solo has certain elements which can be recognized by the (trained) listener.
Many people in the Western part of the world miss the melodic and harmonic context during a free drum solo. It's fair to say a free drum solo without any accompaniment is like an abstract painting. Within the given context you can hear and see what you can manage, depending on your own frame of reference and expectations. In the end, it's about: does it resonate with you? Because both, the painting and the free drum solo, they lack a clear "subject" (no lyrics, no recognizable image), both forms are highly subjective and open to the interpretation of the audience. They function as a "conversation" between the artist's feeling and the viewer's/listener's perception. But you also can listen to it with a pure analytical drum ear and try to follow the patterns and phrases. As a musician and human I (try to) do both :-) Enjoy!
More info: Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
Proudly I present to you the first of a couple of live videos, coming up during the next weeks. The first one is the a little bit fusionesque tune "Altitudes of Freedom" with not only a saxophone solo, but also a piano solo bij Matthijs Geerts and a synth solo by Ike van Bergen!
More info: Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
This is a tune called Kalunga Dance, from my latest album Dark Horse, order it here or buy it at a concert, the next one is Brebl, Nijmegen 1 day after my birthday on 16th of April! Hope to see you there!In this performance, we featured percussionist/vocalist and world citizen Helene Jank. She lived and worked in Brazil for quite a while and I really think it's audible here. I love the way she and the band creates this moment of space within the concert and this is also why - I think - visiting concerts is important because then you get to experience the whole context of the concert. How is the program build up, how does the audience respond and what does music makes you feel. More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij.
