Drummer Harry Alt’s world has always been filled with music: Video, Photos

The drummer works as a music teacher, also in Friedberg. His heart belongs to oriental jazz. He will now appear with the Harrycane Orchestra on Friday, July 22nd in the courtyard.

Oriental jazz is a combination of Arabic melody combined with gentle western jazz. The extraordinary sound can be heard on Friday, July 22nd in the Friedberger Schlosshof. It is Harry Alt’s passion. He wants to bring the beauty of this music closer to the Friedberg audience in a concert with his band Harrycane Orchestra. As international as Harry Alt’s music is, his origins are Bavarian.

Why such an exotic style as oriental jazz? He has been listening to Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish and Arabic music for many years – just like others like salsa, says Alt. “I think it’s very nice, it appeals to me emotionally.” It also has a lot to do with the singing. He likes the Turkish and Arabic languages, their tonality and the tones that are not found in western music.

Harry Alt played for the Weather Girls and Foolsgarden

Alt himself was born in Landsberg. When he was eight years old, his parents moved to Kleinaitingen. Harry Alt’s world has always been full of music. He started piano lessons at the age of seven – “half voluntarily”, as he admits. “But I didn’t get into the slippers.” However, when he sat on the drums for the first time at the age of 14, he knew: this is his thing. He soon played in a band with which he went on tour after high school. The young musicians made it to Russia. Then he decided to study percussion at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. Later he drummed for the Weather Girls and Foolsgarden, among others, and was the drummer for musicals like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or “Hair”. Currently he is often on stage with Tom & Flo or Adrian Winkler.

Living as a professional musician is nice, but sometimes difficult, says Alt, who lives in Augsburg. “For many people that’s nothing because you don’t have a regular income and no regular working hours. I also always work on the weekends.” That’s why Alt has built up a second source of income, with which he earns half his living. He teaches drums and mallet instruments such as xylophone and vibraphone, for example at the Friedberg Music School. His youngest student is six years old, the oldest in his mid-50s.

As a teacher, it is important to him to support personal initiative: “The students shouldn’t practice for me or their parents, they have to want to do it for themselves. My approach is to show them what’s available and what’s possible. ” This is how he raises his twelve-year-old daughter. “Music plays a very important role for her, she listens a lot, goes to concerts and plays the electric guitar with enthusiasm. She does it of her own accord, I would never tell her to do it.”

Harry Alt also teaches drums in Friedberg

Harry Alt can also be enthusiastic about other things besides the drums, likes to be outside, does sports and goes to cultural events. He also wants this cultural curiosity from his audience on July 22 at 8 p.m. in Friedberg Castle. “It would be nice if the viewers had an open and positive approach to other cultures.” Because, as he sums it up, people in the world are much more alike than you think.

There is a complex rhythm behind the perceived lightness of the music. Added to this is the warm voice of singer Tarkan Yesil. The band will only present their own compositions at the upcoming concert. Harry Alt writes some of them himself, some together with pianist David Kremer. Some of the lyrics were also penned by the bandleader, which Yesil then translated into Turkish. “The lyrics are about why something in the world happens the way it does. Or that you’re not comfortable with what’s happening,” explains Alt.

Many of the song lines are inspired by the wave of refugees from Syria. “The reports from the people who fled via the Balkan route touched me very much. My child was also very small at the time and I imagined how bad it would be when you leave everything behind and take this difficult and dangerous path with your family have to go.”