Saskia Laroo


Saskia Laroo, is a Dutch jazz musician who has been dubbed the "Lady Miles Davis". Her music style can be described as a combination of jazz, pop, electronic dance music, latin and world music.

Biography

The beginning
Laroo was born in :nl:Jordaan_|de Jordaan, Amsterdam, Netherlands as the eldest of four daughters. When she was six the family moved to Den Ilp, a nearby village. A year later she started with general music lessons and lessons on soprano recorder, later also alto recorder at the music school in Purmerend. In Den Ilp she started age 8 to play the cornet in fanfare orchestra. Laroo went in 1971 at age 11 to secondary school: , Zaandam. She switched from recorder to cello and took lessons for 3 years with cellist , who became cellist of the Metropole Orchestra. When she was fifteen Saskia became interested in learning guitar and self-studied classical and folk music on the instrument for a year. A year later she was introduced to jazz music by the newly founded bigband on her high school and became member of the trumpet section. This bigband was conducted by pianist , who is owner of . She got her first lessons in jazz improvisation with this band and heard for the first time bebop trumpet soloing by , then age 17 and also member of the bigband's trumpet section. After high school graduation in 1977, Saskia moved back to Amsterdam to study mathematics at the University of Amsterdam, but instead soon got involved in the city's music scene, and switched from cornet to trumpet. A year later she stopped her mathematics study and went to the where she studied for two years with main subject classical trumpet with trumpeter and secondary instruments classical piano and upright bass; then continuied her music studies with focus on improvised music at the , then named Sweelinck Conservatorium. She had trumpet lessons in improvised music with trumpeter , then member of the Willem Breuker Kollektief, continued her studies classical trumpet with trumpeter , then member of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, took jazz piano lessons and classical upright bass lessons with bassist . In 1982 she was released from the school but took up her studies a year later at the , current part of the . There she studied jazz trumpet with trumpeter Ack van Rooyen, and continuied with jazz piano and classical upright bass lessons. In 1985, when she was 25, she graduated as a jazz trumpet music teacher after two years
Later years
In 1982 she made her first recordings that were released on LP with the band :nl:Fra_Fra_Sound|Fra Fra Sound and the reggae band . In 1985 she played a solo on the song Don't you leave me Baby for Billy Preston's album: You can't keep a good man down. In 1994 she founded her own record label, Laroo Records.
Her first CD album It's Like Jazz, was co-produced by her and Rob Gaasterland, and was released in more than fifteen countries, amongst others in Japan, and speeded up the development of her international career.
She toured with her own formations, amongst others with the Saskia Laroo Band, Jazzkia and Duo Laroo/Byrd to countries such as the USA; Canada; South Africa in 1996 and 2007; Brazil, China in 2004 and 2007 and she went for multiple tours to India.
She played on international festivals, like the Montreux Jazzfestival in 2006 and again in 2007 after receiving the Montreux Jazz Award.
She received in 2010 an Indian peace prize, the Karmaveer Puraskaar of the iCongo organisation in New Delhi, India.
In 2013 she recorded a DVD Live in Zimbabwe with her eight piece Saskia Laroo Band at the Harare International Festival of the Arts. This DVD was released March 28, 2014 and a limited edition on CD on October 15, both in Paradiso, Amsterdam. In 2019 she celebrates 40 years performing live on stage, 25 years her record label Laroo Records and 25 years the Saskia Laroo Band. A new album release is scheduled in the Netherlands for November 1, 2019 in het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and in the US November 29, 2019 at , Middletown, Connecticut.

Bands

Laroo's first performances started around 1978 with pop, fusion and dixieland bands. She was part of the all-female band , played around 1981 in the Surinamese band Fra Fra Sound and was part of the free jazz workshop orchestra , she started working with American blues vocalist and saxophonist Rosa King, with Dutch saxophonist Hans Dulfer, and his daughter Candy Dulfer, with :nl:Edsel_Juliet|Edsel Juliet's group Saljuco, toured with , an avant-garde project with American conductor/trumpeter/composer Butch Morris, and with :nl:The_Broads_|Heleen Schuttevaer's all female jazzpop band .
Later on in her career she performed with jazz greats such as Teddy Edwards and Ernie Andrews and performs currently with Warren Byrd's group , 's group . She did dance cross-overs with :nl:DJ_Isis|100% Isis, Ken Ishii, , :nl:Ronald_Molendijk|Ronald Molendijk and has done recent performances with Hungarian DJ and producer , Israelian Dj and bassist

Own formations

1982 - 1986: Salsa Caliente
1986 - 1990: Caribbean Express
1990 - 1994: Caribbean Colours
1993 - present: Salsabop
1993 - present: Saskia's Solo Act
1994 - present: The Saskia Laroo Band, at first named: the Laroo Colour
1996 - present:
2009 - present:

Performances

2019: Burundi, the Netherlands, Thailand, the US
2018: the Netherlands, the US, Vietnam, South Korea, the Netherlands, the US
2016: Belgium, China Tour, Croatia Tour, France, India Tour, Indonesia tour, the Netherlands, the US.
2015: Bangla Desh, Italy, India, Lithuenia, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, the US
2014: Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, the US
2013: DR Congo, Thailand, the Netherlands, the US, Zimbabwe
2012: Mexico & Guatemala, Oman, US, the Netherlands
2011: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Finland, India, the Netherlands, the US.
2010: Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Moldavia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Thailand, the US.
2009: ao Bahrain jazzfest, France, India, Kuwait jazzfest, Netherlands, Oman, Quatar jazzfest, the US.
2008: Brazil, Germany, India, Moldavia, Netherlands, Poland,Russia, Singapore, Senegal, Taiwan, Ukraine, the US.
2007: Austria, Brazil, China, Croatia, India, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, South Africa,  Swiss, Taiwan, Thailand, the US
2006: Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Germany, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Swiss, Ukraine, the US.
2005: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Russia, Surinam, the US.
2004: China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, India, Indonesia, Kuwait Jazz Festival, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland.
2003: Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia.
2002: Baltic States, Croatia, Curacao, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the US.
2001: Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the US.
2000: Belgium, Colombia, Dutch Antilles tour, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the US.
1999: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, the US.
1998: France, the Netherlands, Switzerland
1997: Bulgaria, Lebanon, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Russia.
1996: Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain
1995: Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea.

Discography on Laroo Records

Albums