Venus Tunes Live in Abidjan, Ivory Coast!

My latest mix is now online. Venus Tunes Sessions is a monthly mix by Susanne Alt on Freak31, aired every first Sunday of the month at 19:00h. In addition, earlier Venus Tunes Sessions shows are repeated every Friday between 20:00-21:00 and Tuesday 21:00-22:00.Freak 31 has around 250 daily listeners (less during the week, more in the weekend) and a total of +10.000 listeners every month. In addition to Mixcloud and Hearthis, all mixes are also available as podcasts on Deezer and iTunes.It was in 2015 when I had my first official dj gig and since 2016 I started to perform regularly. This took place in Amsterdam's Skyybar, Floor17 and The Harbourclub Zuid... bit by bit, other places like Momo and W Amsterdam followed, leading to club bookings as a dj and festival bookings with Venus Tunes Live in the Netherlands and abroad. All of this in addition to my normal life as a musician. I love dj'ing as it adds another facet to my musicianship.Listen to all editions of the Venus Tunes Sessions where you like; choose your platform: Venus Tunes Sessions is a monthly guest mix by Susanne Alt on Freak31, aired every first Sunday of the month at 1900h. Streaming Dance, straight from Amsterdam. - Sorry for keeping you waiting, right after Abidjan I was on a business trip to London and when I came home on Monday I had to catch up on daily stuff.. and make back ups of video, audio and photo material...Here we go: Venus Tunes Live featuring Susanne Alt, Mavis Acquah and Femke Krone has been invited to perform at Emoi Du Jazz Festival in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast. Robert Glass accompanied us.We were booked to play a long set on Tuesday evening, Mavis and Femke were also asked to give a workshop for children and I was invited to jam along the bands that played in the Music'All Jazz Club. This club has been founded by Feu Désiré Coffi Gadeau alias DEZ GAD, a business man/guitarist. Unfortunately he passed away a few years but his family is continuing the festival. (View from the hotel terrace. Photos: 1 by F. Krone, 2 by Robert Glass)For everyone of us this was our first trip to this region on this continent. The most Africa we had been to up to now, was Tunisia and Morocco. We had to prepare this trip well since this is Malaria and Yellow Fever zone. Not forgetting to put on sunscreen and especially Deet, not forget the Malaria pills, things like that...We stayed at lovely Pullman hotel with an incredible breakfast and nice view.We felt very welcome from the first moment on, thanks to our host Marceau Gadeau; and look at these huge billboards all over town! They had one for every band and also several mixed billboards with all artists: (Photos: 1 by D. Feys, 2 by S. Alt) (Photos: 1 by R. Glass, 2 by F. Krone)On the day of our gig we were supposed to soundcheck at 11h but heavy rain and some logistic problems messed up the scheme.. Fortunately we could relax at this beautiful villa right next to the jazz club and could get used to the hot climate. We also shot a new video clip for a new song... since we had a lot of time to kill. Finally the performance. A seated audience, which is normal here I've been told. Luckily, after a while, many got out of their chairs and danced with us!(Photos by Luc Roussouliere/Inontsina) (photos 1 by S. Alt. 2 by R. Glass)Next day, Mavis and Femke had the workshop. 22 nice and wll-behaved kids attended the workshops by Femke and Mavis. Every kid got a diploma and a picture with Femke and Mavis afterwards, it was a whole ceremony. I also insisted in getting a diploma and a photo... (Photos by Luc Roussouliere/Inontsina)In the evening i got to jam with Felix Sabal Lecco, the master drummer from Cameroon, living in Paris, his great band and also a french pianist, pictured in photo 2, I'll post the name when I find out and also a local band, lead by drummer Desy Kouakou who did a tribute set to Marvin Gaye, followed by another jam. (Photos: 1 by Maya Lisa, 2 by S. Alt)Maya Lisa (of the Jamal Thomas Band, who played at the festival a few days later made this first photo, I love Amsterdam, selling pancakes and poffertjes :-)In the right photo you see Femke at the nice and relaxed CAVA market where we bought some percussion instruments, jewellery and clothes. Photo by S. Alt and R. Glass)Before we went to the Banco National Park, rainforest, we were invited to Abidjan radio Marcory FM for an interview. On the way to the park we saw this: Lots of these. Places to wash clothes and laundry drying in the grass. We entered the park with a guide who told a lot about the trees. We didn't se so many animals, but they were living in this jungle. Chimpansees and other monkeys, native animals such as the African civet, genet, bushbuck, duiker. We only saw some herons, some big catfish, a big centipede, a dead monkey and we heard many birds and insects, high in the trees. Also we saw some chimpansee beds, who only use a bed once and then move on to the next tree. We learned impressive stuff, such as a tree which is a parasite tree and grows over the host tree, and another tree which only can reproduce by having its fruits eaten and digested by an elephant and only due to to the 90 degrees celsius in his stomache the seeds can germinate. So maybe there was not so much to literally see but more to experience. Big thanks and compliments to our great friendly drivers who manoeuvered us through the busy streets of Abidjan!(Photos by S. Alt and R. Glass)Thank you dear festival Emoi Du Jazz and Dirk Feys from Tsahara Productions for making this trip possible.Hope to be back one day. We met lovely people and the kids were so well behaved!The food was amazing, everything tasted great.Video material will follow in a couple of weeks... I hope you stay patient.... :-)