Throwback Thursday: tv promo with my third album "On Track"
"On Track" was the first album which got wider recognition and lots of reviews. Somehow the timing was right and the climate was there for some funky jazz. This is my first collaboration with Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight and it was received with open arms by the press. Promoter Jose Lensink from Incrowd Entertainment just has been starting up her own company and I think I was one of her first customers and she was very motivated (and has been very motivated ever since). I had a touring band, the "Susanne Alt Quartet" (between 2003-2013) and it was great to play on tv, here a tune on "De Wereld Draait Door":
Another one on th sunday morning program "Vrije Geluiden"
I was super happy with everything except I got comments about the record cover all the time. Later I found out, actually only last year that indeed there has been a mistake made in the process, on the left side you see the photo as it should be, on the right side you see how the cover ended up, stretched out! Somehow we didn't see it at the time and were happy to have the album finished... You can see it by looking at the record box in the back left of me, where they are kind of square, while on the right photo they are stretched.. Records are round, so it means they need a square sleeve. Ouch. Well, it lead to discussions.. It was too late to change the cover of a released cd but it was true though. The cd's of "On Track" are almost sold out, there are only handful left but of course it's still available digitally.
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. - On Track was the first album which got wider recognition and lots of reviews. Somehow the timing was right and the climate was there for some funky jazz.This is my first collaboration with Fred Wesley and Bruno Speight and it was received with open arms by the press. Promoter Jose Lensink from Incrowd Entertainment just has been starting up her own company and I think I was one of her first customers and she was very motivated (and has been very motivated ever since). I had a touring band, the Susanne Alt Quartet (between 2003-2013) and it was great to play on tv, here a tune on De Wereld Draait Door:Another one on th sunday morning program Vrije GeluidenI was super happy with everything except I got comments about the record cover all the time. Later I found out, actually only last year that indeed there has been a mistake made in the process, on the left side you see the photo as it should be, on the right side you see how the cover ended up, stretched out! Somehow we didn't see it at the time and were happy to have the album finished...You can see it by looking at the record box in the back left of me, where they are kind of square, while on the right photo they are stretched.. Records are round, so it means they need a square sleeve. Ouch. Well, it lead to discussions.. It was too late to change the cover of a released cd but it was true though. The cd's of On Track are almost sold out, there are only handful left but of course it's still available digitally.
