Saskia Laroo - It's Like Jazz (2007)

Heavily influenced by Miles Davis, Saskia Laroo is a soft-toned, economical trumpeter who is comfortable playing electronic acid jazz, club music and hip-hop as well as straight-ahead acoustic jazz. Laroo, who also plays bass, was born and raised in the Netherlands, where she began studying the trumpet at the age of seven and became interested in playing jazz when she was a teen-ager. In 1994, Laroo released her first album, It's Like Jazz, for her own Laroo label. An acid jazz/hip-hop/dance effort that sometimes brings to mind US3, It's Like Jazz was fairly similar to her sophomore album of 1998, Bodymusic. But in 1999, the trumpeter recorded straight-ahead acoustic jazz on her third album, Jazzkia (which was essentially a tribute to Davis) and her fourth album, Sunset Eyes 2000, which prominently featured the great tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards. ~ Alex Henderson