No "Throwback Thursday" today but biking and walking with Susanne in Amsterdam!
"Efficacy" is a collection of Q&A with artists who know Fiona Bloom and her company The Bloom Effect. Fiona helps me with the PR of "Saxify" in US and UK. I have to admit it was a challenge to do. Thinking of good answers is one thing, doing it in English is another. Making a cool little movie is a new and challenging aspectas well. But we are learning all the time. We wanted to go even to other locations but the weather became crazy. Glad we made NeL/Amstelveld, the famous bridge "Magere brug" and a bit of Bimhuis/Muziekgebouw. Thanks to Robert Glass who filmed and edited it. The tune I loop during the interview and which you here in the end is "Open Up" from Saxidy and it features Berenice van Leer.
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. - No Throwback Thursday today but biking and walking with Susanne in Amsterdam!Efficacy is a collection of Q&A with artists who know Fiona Bloom and her company The Bloom Effect. Fiona helps me with the PR of Saxify in US and UK.I have to admit it was a challenge to do. Thinking of good answers is one thing, doing it in English is another. Making a cool little movie is a new and challenging aspectas well. But we are learning all the time. We wanted to go even to other locations but the weather became crazy. Glad we made NeL/Amstelveld, the famous bridge Magere brug and a bit of Bimhuis/Muziekgebouw.Thanks to Robert Glass who filmed and edited it. The tune I loop during the interview and which you here in the end is Open Up from Saxidy and it features Berenice van Leer.
