Dear all,
last week was really exciting, monday 26-11-12 I played at Sunset, Paris, the VandoJam with a fantastic band, consisting of Michael Cheret (tenor sax), Frederic Nardin (piano), Manu Marchès (double bass) and Philippe Soirat (drums). It's a regular jam session, organised by Vandoren. Lionel Aknine from AK9 Promotion, which is working on the french release of 'How to kiss', invited 2 journalists for interviews, and there was a film crew who filmed a tune during the soundcheck. I will let you know when the interviews arrive. Here's a video of VandoJam: VANDOJAM + Susanne Alt: Happy people @ Sunset, Paris.
We (my boyfriend and actually the one who films all the videos, and I) stayed one day longer to network some more, meet some old friends and new contact persons and of course to enjoy beautiful Paris. I am happy that the Parisians do understand more English than in the past. I do understand French but cannot really speak it (yet), next year I will work on it. So, wednesday we drove home, and after being stuck in traffic jams around Paris, Antwerp and Amsterdam, I got voicemails from Wen De Backer, 'urgent'! I was driving the whole time so I coudn't ring him back. Just when I finally stopped to call him, he told me that Vincent Herring, the great alto saxophonist and fellow Yanagisawa endorser, had asked for me to come to his concert at Bimhuis (I already had planned that), but to bring by saxophone to play with them! What an honour! So at the encore, indeed I got called on stage to play with these great masters: Vincent Herring, alto, Eric Alexander, tenor, Harold Mabern, piano, the birthday man Joris Teepe, bass, Joris Dudli, drums. You can look and listen back here: Eric Alexander/Vincent Herring Quintet feat. Harold Mabern: Blue Monk (with guest Susanne Alt).
Updates from the french press follow hopefully soon! Oh, and I wish you all a great Sintaklaas, christmas and a very happy and healthy new year.