The Art of Letting Go Suzan Veneman

• 1 Shadow Self 08:17
• 2 The Longest Night 09:08
• 3 Shadows 01:25
• 4 Cling 10:20
• 5 Promise Me 06:40
• 6 Dreams and Wishes 08:44
• 7 More Shadows 01:01
• 8 Lament & Consolation 07:35
• 9 Balancing Act 06:06
• 10 The Art of Letting Go 09:49
• 11 Shadow Self (Single Edit) 06:49
• 12 Promise Me (Single Edit) 05:48
• Total Runtime 01:21:42

Info for The Art of Letting Go

Rising star of Dutch jazz expresses her inner world with dynamic trumpet playing.

Suzan Veneman and her favourite band, her sextet, have made huge steps in their development. Their new album The Art of Letting Go showcases the fluent interplay of the three horn players. Their colourful harmonies are embedded in the layered sounds of the rhythm section. With her compositions for the album, Suzan Veneman interprets the process of letting go, of working your way through the darkness to ultimately reach the light.

Trumpet player Suzan Veneman has quickly established herself with her soulful and energetic sound. After finishing her studies in the United States she has been fulfilling her role not only as a talented musician, but also as a promising composer and arranger. With her adventurous compositions, she has earned international acclaim. In recent years, for example, she has been invited by renowned trumpet player and composer Dave Douglas to write music for his Festival of New Trumpet Music. In her sextet she plays with top players from contemporary Dutch jazz.

Suzan Veneman, flugelhorn
Jasper van Damme, soprano saxophone
Vincent Veneman, trombone
Timothy Banchet, piano
Tijs Klaassen, double bass
Wouter Kühne, drums

Suzan Veneman
Jazz trumpet player Suzan Veneman is quickly established her place on the scene, capturing audiences with her adventurous and soulful sound. After finishing her studies in the USA she has been fulfilling her role as successful musician and promising composer and arranger. Comfortable with many genres in of modern music, she can be seen playing with a wide variety of bands, including the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Beets New Jazz Orchestra, Zack Lober’s NO FILL3R and her own ambitious projects ‘Zinder’ and the 'Suzan Veneman Sextet'.

Her early achievements include being finalist at the Prinses Christina Concours (NL, 2010) and partaking in the exclusive Jazz Rising Stars Program at Ravinia, IL (USA, 2013) lead by former jazz giant David Baker.

Suzan has also excelled as a skilled composer and arranger, being a finalist at the ASMAC Big Band composers and arrangers competition in LA (USA, 2014) and awardee Jazz Comp Graz Big Band Composers Competition in Austria in 2021. She was also invited as a guest composer at NDR big band in Hamburg, as part of their ‘Arrangement Podium’ in 2021 and was chosen as 1 of 10 composers to present her new work at ‘Week van de Jazz’ in 2022.

Veneman founded the Suzan Veneman Sextet in 2019, starting out as a bandleader, further discovering her voice as a composer and arranger. Her debut album ‘Migrations of the Mind’ came out in the Spring of 2022, after which the band played a beautiful release-tour on several leading jazz festivals and stages throughout the Netherlands.

She is currently in the process of releasing a new album with her newest project ‘Zinder’, a sextet consisting of 4 trumpets, upright bass and drums. Her idea was to combine the dynamic force of 4 trumpets with the freedom of a chord-less trio. Within this special set-up, Veneman playfully explores different roles the trumpet takes on within the jazz idiom, using big band-like tuttis, desolate melodies, free improvisation and warm harmonic interplay.

Suzan studied with Kurt Weiss, Alex Sipiagin, Joe Magnarelli, Jim Rotondi, Victor Lewis and Conrad Herwig, among others.

This album contains no booklet.