Updated: April 6, 2024
Born: July 31, 1959
Saskia Laroo (1959) was hailed by American public and press at large as “Lady Miles of Europe”. She is one of the few women trumpet stylists and a delight on the music scene for almost four decades.
Born July 31, 1959 in Amsterdam, it began for her on trumpet at age 8, never dreaming herself becoming a professional musician.
That all changed when Saskia, turned 18, after briefly majoring in Mathematics at University of Amsterdam switched her focus to a career in music. She worked extensively in various groups from this point, primarily on upright bass, though eventually, on both bass and trumpet. Saskia Laroo combines today’s music by uncontrived romps into new styles, eagerly limned as “nu jazz” or “swingin’ body-music”–a vivacious blend of hip-hop, jazz, salsa, funk reggae, and world, that a select few others would dare venture.
Her artistry and her groove ring vibrantly and free on her eight CD albums, a LP and a DVD, journeying us through all the music she has absorbed, played with heart and soul.
long version : https://saskialaroo.com/biography
Awards
International awards/prizes - 2021 received a hero award “Jij bent een held” from the City of Amsterdam as Miss Feelgood Saskia for the Friday Feelgood Concerts!! -2010: Saskia received an Indian peace prize, the Karmaveer Puraskaar, by the Icongo organization, New Delhi for doing a Jazz for Peace tour through India with her band in 2008. -2006: The Saskia Laroo Band was the winner of the Montreux “Under the Sky” Jazz competition, Montreux Jazzfestival, Switzerland -2005: Saskia Laroo was finalist in the International Song Competition (ISC) with Leemou from Saskia ‘s album Bodymusic (Laroo/Sylla)
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Saskia Laroo Band at Cotton Club
by Phillip Woolever
Saskia Laroo Band Cotton Club Amsterdam, Netherlands October 18, 2014 jny: Amsterdam's Saskia Laroo is one of the many hard working, far traveling players who make jazz, indeed, a global village. Laroo's afternoon gig at a venerable, center city pub took place during the Amsterdam Dance Event, a huge music mix focused on techno/dance gatherings that run past sunrise. For the approximately two hours Laroo's band played, Cotton Club was as crowded and ...
Continue ReadingSaskia Laroo: Lady Miles
by Gina Vodegel
A new album will hit the streets on March 15. Her name garners respect and admiration. Trumpeter Saskia Laroo, also referred to as a trumpet stylist, has been performing more than three decades on various stages across the globe. We had agreed on an interview for AAJ in 2006, but somehow timetables didn't match up. A year had passed and miss Laroo sent an email apologizing about the delay. In the meantime, I came across a blog from Koen Scherer, ...
Continue ReadingSaskia Laroo: Jazz Yatra 2004
by AAJ Staff
Greetings from India! Best wishes for a Happy New Year to everyone reading here...First of all, a salute to all the brave survivors of the horrible Tsunami on the day after Christmas and to those who are helping them become normal human beings again. May the souls of the departed ones rest in eternal peace.Prof. R. Ganapathy of the Enrico Fermi Institute and Baker Chemical Laboratory, gave us a talk, an engrossing and bewitching talk on meteorites ...
Continue ReadingSaskia Laroo: A New Jazz Goddess
by AAJ Staff
In the recently set tradition of unfurling new, amazingly original jazz talent, dear readers, I throw open the wraps right off a truly prodigious talent... Saskia Laroo, of the Netherlands. In the brief spell of a few years, this astonishingly talented trumpeter has scaled more heights than a professional mountaineer could ever dream of! She has played the trumpet, which to my mind is rather an unladylike instrument and hence all the more difficult to tackle, with a virtuosity and ...
Continue ReadingSaskia Laroo: New CD Release March 15th
Source:
Gina Vodegel Writing Affairs
In March, international trumpet player from the Netherlands Saskia Laroo will release her fifth CD on her own label Laroo Records. This new CD, a melange of Funk, Dance, and Jazz using instrumental themes, vocals, rap, beatbox, and improvisation over hip grooves will be called Really Jazzy. Having released two jazz albums and two funk albums in more than twenty countries, Really Jazzy will be her first new release since 1999. Ms. Laroo recorded and produced her latest work on ...
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Some fools say jazz is also a monolith. Not as long as there are vibrant energizers like Laroo's crew playing. Her stage was small scale, but her performance was large. It was exactly the kind of thing that keeps jazz alive. Philip Woolever for AllAboutJazz, Nov 18, 2014 Laroo plays the stars out of the heavens, while her grooving band trundles on, fiercely propulsive. It is funk, jazz-dance and hip-hop in one. Stan Rijven for Dutch national newspaper Trouw Oct 17, 2014 "Her harmon mute playing on Blackbird managed to suggest [Miles] Davis without attempting to imitate him." (Don Heckman, in LA Times
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trumpetEddie Henderson
trumpetUs3
band / ensemble / orchestraPalle Mikkelborg
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organ, Hammond B3Soulive
band / ensemble / orchestraRonny Jordan
guitarArtists who share similar musical characteristics to Saskia Laroo.