AL Goodah

Biografie AL GOODAH: nourishment for the soul

Musical career

Al Goodah (Carlo Goedhart) draws on a rich cultural heritage of Caribbean music.

Born in Paramaribo (Surinam), he grew up in a family of singers and musicians. His mother and sister sang in a choir, one aunt was an opera singer in Curacao, another was a choir director in Surinam, and his grandfather played the guitar and had performed as a professional accompanist to silent movies. His grandfather also had a good grasp of music theory and was able to coach the children in the family to enter local singing competitions.

By the age of nine, Carlo’s voice was already impressive and he was soon gaining stage experience via song festivals, appearances as a gospel singer with a brother and cousin, and performances at a local grand hotel Torarica.

At 17 he was touring Suriname with his brother as part of a cultural music group.

His growing reputation led to an invitation to switch musical genre and become lead singer in up-and-coming Surinamese pop group Exodus. Within a few years Exodus was the most celebrated band in Surinam.

When Exodus broke up in the early 1980s, Al Goodah decided to pursue a career as a solo artist. He sang with the Torarica Big Band and the Rodrigues Latin Combo. After studying musical theory, he also joined classical vocal ensemble Troki.

Finally, in 1986, he decided to leave Surinam and develop his vocal talents and musical career in the Netherlands.

Arriving in the Netherlands , Al Goodah first studied light music at the Rotterdam Conservatory and then went on to train in jazz vocals at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.

He swiftly launched his Dutch stage career and has since then been in constant demand as a freelance vocalist. He has performed with a number of groups specializing in a wide variety of musical styles, from jazz and latin to soul, blues, world music and pop.

His first single CD, Free Yourself, featured a miscellany of musical influences ranging from the romantic ballad via mellow house and traditional pop all the way to world music.

His latest CD, "Love is You", showcases Goodah’s distinctive and spontaneous vocal and musical style (JEM: "Jazzy Entertainment Music") and aims to transport the listener from the uninspiring routine of everyday life to a world rich in warmth and emotion.

Most recently, Al Goodah has been appearing as guest vocalist with internationally acclaimed Dutch crossover band Fra Fra Sound during its highly successful 2004-2005 Kid Dynamite Kulembanban tour of the Netherlands, France, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mexico, Burkina Faso and Mali http://www.frafrasound.com/. The tour is a tribute to legendary tenor sax player Kid Dynamite (1911-1963), the father of modern Afro-Surinamese music.

In 1992 " 2000 he played together with Amina Figarova (piano), Bart Platteau (Flute), Izaak van Niel (Bass)….etc with their own Band The A-Company

However, Goodah’s own musical hero is the influential blind Black Music artist Stevie Wonder. Apart from greatly admiring the former Motown artist’s charisma and stage presence, he finds his enduring passion for music over more than four decades an unfailing source of inspiration for his own on-going vocal career. Show less