BRU JAZZ WE - Brussels Jazz Weekend

Fergus McCreadie is one of the most exciting young jazz pianists on the world stage. With his unique blend of Jazz and Scottish folk music inspired by his country’s  sublime landscapes, Fergus captures the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. He is undoubtedly a future star in the making.

Fergus has an innate depth, flair and natural expression that communicates beyond his years. His ability to transition from a full flowing, radiant pulse-wash of sound to a tranquil, first light stillness in a moment is simply breathtaking. Whilst his music is built on the folk traditions he has grown up with, it’s the versatility of rhythm and colour, from the most delicate shades to the highest energy, that’s captivating. 

Some musicians can do that. Make time stand still. Often without intention. They sing songs straight from the soul. They hit others right in the heart. Naima Joris is such a singer. Pure.

Naima Joris has had an eventful life. She’s no novice - certainly not on a human level - instead, strangely enough, she is a musician/composer. She never had the ambition to stand on a stage and only learned the basics of guitar and piano at age 27. It was enough to comfort herself at home by playing and singing cover songs that appealed to her heart. 

That’s how she was picked up from her living room by Gaetan Vandewoude to serve as a backing singer at Isbells for a short time. A little later, she sang a lead song for the first time for an audience with Raymond van het Groenewoud at a Radio 1 session.  

Her father, jazz musician Chris Joris, pulled her onto the stage starting in 2016  as a guest singer in his band. She discovered the depths of her voice and one day took a tip from an enthusiastic listener to cover a song by Cesaria Evora. She tried this tip during the first lockdown, so she posted Sodade from Cesaria Evora. The success of that Facebook post led her into the spotlight. 

At a time when we think that everything can be done with a snap of the fingers, when we favour the number of experiences over their quality, Aka Moon invites us to take the opposite view. To open up to the world. To meet. To be deeply curious.

With a solid base of three musicians Aka Moon has gone out to meet musicians around the world, on all continents. The albums that testify to this are the memories of their encounters, and cover these travels far greater than anyone could have captured on camera.

Thirty years ago, access to information was not as fluid as it is today, and Aka Moon anticipated, without being fully aware of it, what the world would become: a new era where all cultures are within reach and familiar — at least on a direct level.

It is clear that multiculturalism has become mainstream. At the beginning, these intersections were still to be imagined. Aka Moon conceived these connections through hard work, with many unknowns and risks. They first set out to discover different African and then Indian cultural veins, and the adventure never stopped: from the farthest to the closest, with trips back and forth and invitations.

They heralded an era when the need to know and relate to the other must be the result of thorough work. The quality of the process is as essential as the outcome.

Today, Aka Moon is a reference point that invites emancipation and courage, favouring the unexpected over the standard forms. Like a group with a variable constellation, it has never stopped inviting, discovering, evolving, innovating and daring.

Formed in 2022, NØ Steam is a Belgian group that mixes jazz, funk and hip-hop initiated by pianist Igor Gehenot and guitarist Fabrizio Graceffa who are the main composers of the repertoire.

Through a whole new set of compositions, the group plunges us into the fever of the electro-jazz period by mixing it with very contemporary influences.
 
The energy of the brass, the powerful groove of the rhythm section, the sound of the turntables of DJ Odilon, the bubbling improvisations and the meticulous arrangements make the identity of this group with a unique sound.

With schroothoop (Dutch for 'junk yard'), multi-instrumentalists Rik Staelens, Margo Maex and Timo Vantyghem bring a hypnotic, sizzling and danceable trip through the Brussels melting pot.

The three Brussels residents surprised last year with their mesmerizing and acclaimed debut album Klein Dangerous Waste (Rebel Up, Stadskanker), a wonderful mix of jazz, oriental music and Cuban-African rhythms. The band's instruments consist of everything they can find on the street: construction buckets, PVC pipes, food cans, waxed wire, pots, pans and more. The home-made instruments from scrap heap provide a unique, ripping yet sultry sound that came into its own on the album thanks to the post-production of Dijf Sanders.

The band convinced last summer with performances at Gent Jazz, Recyclart, AMOK, Leffingeleuren, STUK, Plazey, De Casino, Het Bos, BRASS and with a live stream in the AB via Kiosk Radio. They are currently working in residence at Les Ateliers Claus on the recording of their second album.

WET ENOUGH?! propels you into a composite and versicoloured groove. Inspired by their predecessors and contemporaries, these young musicians modernise a movement combining funk, hip-hop AND jazz.

Lucid Lucia, formerly known as BRZZVLL, will present their new album "Ever Changing Light" from September 2022. This follows the mini album of the same name from 2021, out on SDBAN Records, one of the most important labels in Belgium, specialized in the vibrant contemporary jazz & funk scenes.

Grooves, danceable jazz, spacey sounds, rolling beats, fat bass lines and solos, free form of musical expression, constantly balancing between the composed and the free. Arrangements that within the grit allow room for improvisation, individual manifestations and the controlled mastery of instruments in a way that is singularly unique, musical instruments are an extension of creative minds, split-second decisions made audible to audiences who hear the call for experience freedom, minds liberated in the here and now.

We've been deprived of real socializing for the past few years, yearning for the once-steamy, sweaty, churning nightlife, smoking incandescent
hot melting pot, performances, concerts, events, ...

MUSIC UNITING all listeners, The Crowd In Tha Place To Be, because from the moment one enters the concert hall or club, there is no escaping the magical vibes, tones, melodies and rhythms of live jazz music.

Theon Cross is one of those rare musicians whose vision has redefined their instrument. His unique approach to the tuba has expanded the instrument’s sonic possibilities in revolutionary fashion, restoring it to a long-forgotten prominence as a crucial part of the contemporary jazz ensemble. Through his combination of technical mastery, studio smarts, deep musical knowledge and expansive vision, the power and originality of Theon’s playing has reinvented the tuba’s place in modern music.

Exploring the tuba’s possibilities in the light of diasporic bass culture – ‘Afro-Diaspora Music’ or ADM, as he calls it – Theon has worked to develop the full sonic spectrum of his instrument, transforming it into a total 21st century sound-system, powered by breath. Using the instrument’s ability to produce sub-sonics, bass, mids, and tops, Theon creates complete sound-worlds, building up from rhythm and bass to arrive at melody. Employing its oft-neglected capacity to generate complex multiphonics and sustained pedal tones, he can summon colour, texture and atmosphere. With this expanded low-end theory as his base, Theon approaches his music with a sensibility that travels freely across outernational style and genre, but which remains deeply rooted in his own African-Caribbean heritage. A graduate of Guildhall school of music and an alumnus of the legendary Tomorrow’s Warriors, he is as at home with ensemble jazz as he is when playing road marches, collaborating with grime stars, or providing bassline pressure in reggae, afrobeat or soca settings.

‘In a period of isolation, when our perception of control over our circumstances is in questionable condition, we seek moments of peace,’ says Theon of the album. ‘I believe the most effective way to find tranquillity in an era of tension is for individuals to search within themselves and gain mental clarity, through the process of meditation and self reasoning. The music of Intra-I acts as a musical depiction of this philosophy, incorporating life lessons and life experiences into the sound.’

In the eighties, in the wake of the Honky Tonk Jazz Club, the fertile jazz soil of Dendermonde gave birth to a number of jazz bands, of which The Mardi Gras Jazzband is probably the most idiosyncratic.

From the start in 1983 it was already clear that The Mardi Gras Jazzband would distinguish itself through a separate repertoire with both "sensitive-emotional" and "hot-played" songs.

"Old Style" has been the motto all along and to this day in which long forgotten songs and surprising themes are brought. This shows that the "New Orleans jazz" is much more than just the playing style of black musicians who visited our region in the sixties and seventies.

Their favorite repertoire comes from the "Roaring Twenties", the time of short skirts, Prohibition and of course the flamboyant black jazz music.

Crafted from the finest Fender metal, Tijuana brass and worn Hammond wood, the Whodads bring their favorite instrumentals from the days when cars had fins. The legendary big band dances with Film Noir music that you rarely hear live, Surf jazz and fat Mambo that sounds like a crossover between Link Wray and Perez Prado. Their latest (March 2022) single, James Bond Is Black, was a hit on UK Ska stations.

The Jassettes are a Brussels-based, multinational group of dancers inspired by authentic dances & steps of the Jazz Era. All their step have been found in original black and white movies and video clips (1920s-1950s). They didn't add anything, it's purely recreated from old dancers.

Swing it Brussels is a nonprofit organisation of local swing dancers dedicated to make the Brussels Swing Scene blossom!

Crafted from the finest Fender metal, Tijuana brass and worn Hammond wood, the Whodads bring their favorite instrumentals from the days when cars had fins. The legendary big band dances with Film Noir music that you rarely hear live, Surf jazz and fat Mambo that sounds like a crossover between Link Wray and Perez Prado. Their latest (March 2022) single, James Bond Is Black, was a hit on UK Ska stations.

Bodem's own compositions navigates between modern jazz harmonies and pop sing-along melodies, all colored by picturesque percussion.

The trio was formed in Brussels, in 2020, but the three musicians wouldn’t all tell the same story. It’d be like asking a child how long they’ve known their parents. The strong bonds between these three young musicians translates to a solid, cohesive dynamic in their playing. Following a proposal from Fresh Sound Records, Wajdi decided to write a new repertory for the trio. The new music is rhythmically, melodically, and harmonically varied, and each song tells a true story from Wajdi’s life, and that honesty comes through in the trio’s playing.

Bodies played live for a year. The quartet experimented and went in search of its own sound. The foursome has now also released a first EP, which is, as it were, an introduction to the path they have traveled, a first reference to the many influences that can be heard in their music. They range from pop rock to jazz, but Bodies also goes back to experimental styles and is influenced by techno and hip-hop. The group takes the audience on an auditory journey where the heavy grooves mix with the improvisation. Led by saxophonist and composer Alejandra Borzyk, the group allows the musical universes of Chae Yeon Lee, Mateusz Malcharek and Elie Gouleme to merge.

Mobilhome is a jazz quintet based in Brussels formed around pianist Camille-Alban Spreng. Following the over kitch statement: "music is where your home is", they lead the listener on a stony countryside path, full of dangerous turns and smoggy landscapes. This is avantgarde jazz music for nostalgic pop-rock boomers, or birdsongs lovers.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

The city festival expands with an extra stage at the Place de la Vieille Halles aux Blés. Thanks to the collaboration with the Royal Brussels Conservatoire (KCB) and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB), young, ambitious ensembles will have the opportunity to take over the square and present their versatile musical talent to the audience.

For Nicolas, music is primarily a form of 'resonance', with the other artists on stage and with the audience. It makes it possible to share emotions in a very direct way, while giving the other person the opportunity to involve their own emotions. With this international group that brings together a Belgian, a French, a Beninese and a Malagasy, he mainly seeks this resonance, this boundless sharing... The addition of electronics provides an extra level of expressiveness and opens the door to mysterious atmospheres through harmonious to merge with the acoustic sounds of the band.

KAU trio. is an international trio based in Brussels. They met at the age of 13 in an international school and felt immediately a connection between them because of their love for music. After being together in a school rock band, the pandemic created a new moment to start a new project. They call their music instrumental jazz hiphop. For some tracks they invite other musicians but: 'it's just like making bread and then you add the sauce on top. The sauce is the guest, we are the bread.'