Yonga Sun - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I play drums for a living and love Jazz and creative and soulful music. Originally from Germany, I've been living in the Netherlands since 1999. Creating music and sharing it with an audience is one of the greatest blessings I know and fortunately my possibilities to do so keep expanding. I also love to combine music and other disciplines such as dance, theatre and poetry and hope to do this more and more in the near future.
I did a little bit of acting in a theatre play which I really enjoyed a lot.
I think the common denominator of all forms of Art is to tell stories and/or create moods through different means.
(Special thanks to Cees van de Ven, Joop Mutsaers and Lisa Haskins for the photos!)
I belive that all aspects of life basically follow the same rules and principles which eventually lead back to understanding one's own mind. The exploration and liberation thereof are a big inspiration to me. This is where Buddhism and other precious teachings come in and provide constant guidance. I should add, though, that I'm also quite good at looking away from problems before actually solving them...
That said, being a sucker for good stories I can waste endless hours watching movies and television series or reading books.
My band "Robinson, Freitag & Caruso" won the "Dutch Jazz Competition" at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2005 and I received the prize for "Best Soloist". I also played at the festival in 2006 and 2007 and would like to make that a recurring tradition! :-)
The Wayne Shorter Quartet is the best band in the world. That's a fact. :-)
Visit my WEBSITE for an up-to-date blog and contact information.
Check out more of my music by clicking on the first eight friend buttons below.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/15/2006
Band Website: YongaSun.com
Band Members:

Veenendaal/Kneer/Sun (Spontaneous Arranged Music)
Robinson, Freitag & Caruso (JazzFolkMinimal)
Lavalu (Nu-Pop)
Oruga (Afrogrooves & Worldfunk)
Talking Cows (jazz)
As Guests (Modern Jazz)
Matthias Goebel Quartet (Modern Jazz)

Here's the Lavalu video

And now for some Talking Cows

This one's just for fun

And here's proof to my fact that the Wayne Shorter Quartet is the best band in the world :-)

Beautiful music making by Wolfgang Muthspiel & Brian Blade

Influences: I'm deeply thankful to my drumheroes:

Elvin Jones
Joey Baron
Brian Blade
Bill Stewart
Jeff "Tain" Watts
Roy Haynes
Art Blakey
Tony Williams
Steve Gadd
Jack DeJohnette
DrÃ© Pallemaerts
Jeff Ballard
Eric Harland
Jochen RÃ¼ckert
Chris "Daddy" Dave
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez
Tereon "Tank" Gully

Let's not forget these other great musicians:

Wayne Shorter
Chick Corea
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
BjÃ¶rk
Brad Mehldau
John Patitucci
Me'Shell Ndegeocello
Alicia Keys
Esperanza Spalding
Sting
Bobby McFerrin
The Bad Plus
Clannad

Before I discoverd Jazz I listened to:

Queen
Bill Withers
Deep Purple
Frank Zappa
Jimi Hendrix
The Blues Brothers
Genesis (the old stuff)
Chicago
Primus
The Who
Iron Maiden
and lots of movie soundtracks

And then there are some generally inspiring people:

17th Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje
16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje
Buddha Shakyamuni
Lama Ole Nydahl
Eckhart Tolle
J.R.R. Tolkien
Walt Disney
Bill Murray
The Blues Brothers
Jean Reno
Bill Cosby
Peter Jackson
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Scarlett Johansson
The A-Team
My Parents

Sounds Like: They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
(Charlie Parker)
Record Label: Evil Rabbit Records / Morvin Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Quick Update

Ooooooh, there are sooo many nice musical things happening right now and I wish I had an internet connection at home to write about them all at my own leisure.Here's a quick list which I hope to expan...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:12:00 PST

One step closer to musical enlightenment

Since most of my musical activities draw their energy from inspiration, it was super awesomely great to meet one of my greatest inspirators of this time.Eric Harland is an incredible and innovative dr...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:42:00 PST

Enjoy Compassion

Very nice!Here's what this is about: "China's torch has arrived in Australia amid protests in Sydney and Canberra. Four Tibet activists were arrested after unfurling a large banner on a prominent Coke...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:39:00 PST

The way is the goal (or so they say)

I originally posted this entry on my weblog at www.yonga.info where you can find many more posts. __________________Somebody asked me how I was doing. Here's my reply:"As for how I'm doing.. well, I'm...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:12:00 PST

His Masters Voice (the master being Keith Jarrett) and some thoughts on communication

I originally posted this entry on my weblog at www.yonga.info where you can find many more posts. ______________It feels as if I know many things on an emotional and/or intuitive level, but often lack...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:08:00 PST

You can find a blog on my Website!

Check out my blog on my HOMEPAGE. I'm thinking about also updating this MySpace blog, but right now that seems like unnecessary extra work. Who'd want that? :-)...
Posted by Yonga Sun on Fri, 15 Sep 2006 02:29:00 PST