Schedule

George Shearing, blind since birth, is one of the world's greatest jazz pianists. Filmed on both sides of the Atlantic, this tribute to Shearing showcases the music which took the jazz world by storm. Specially-shot performances and archive clips feature music spanning the six decades of his remarkable career and classics such as ‘September in the Rain’, ‘Lullaby of Birdland’, ‘Greensleeves’, ‘Donna Lee’ and ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’ are included, as well as many other recent compositions.

Annual trade fair, exhibition, and festival jazzahead! is one of the international jazz community’s most important events. Hosted in Bremen, Germany, jazzahead! brings together musicians, bookers, agents, organizers, jazz experts, and music enthusiasts at the world’s largest jazz event. In 2024, jazzahead! paid special attention to the jazz scene of the Netherlands and invited over forty jazz acts to perform over the course of three days. Among the ensembles presenting themselves at jazzahead! 2024 is Yonglee & the DOLTANG. This five-member progressive rock-improvised music ensemble from South Korea is spearheaded by pianist and composer Yonglee. The group delves into the intricate desires and the ironic absurdities of modern Korean society, balancing “complexity”, which stems from structural elegance, with “simplicity”, derived from spontaneous and emotive improvisation, as key characteristics of their sound. The lineup includes Yonglee (piano, electric piano), Yechan Jo (guitar), Youngwoo Lee (synthesizer, electronics), Hwansu Kang (bass), and Dayeon Seok (drums).

Annual trade fair, exhibition, and festival jazzahead! is one of the international jazz community's most important events. Hosted in Bremen, Germany, jazzahead! brings together musicians, bookers, agents, organizers, jazz experts, and music enthusiasts at the world’s largest jazz event. In 2022, jazzahead! paid special attention to Canada’s jazz scene and invited forty jazz acts from all over the world to perform over the course of three days. One of the projects presented at jazzahead! is the outcome of a commission by Amsterdam jazz club BIMHUIS: composer Tijn Wybenga (1993) was asked to research and establish the sound of Amsterdam in the 21st century. This resulted in an album and various concert dates with the Amsterdam Modern Orkest (playfully abbreviated ‘AM.OK’). Tijn Wybenga conducts this all-star ensemble of Alistair Payne (trumpet), Kika Sprangers (alto saxophone), Nicolo Francescoricci (tenor saxophone), Oliver Emmitt (trombone), Pablo Rodriguez (violin), Oene van Geel (viola), George Dumitriu (viola), Pau Sola (cello), Teis Semey (guitar), Alessandro Fongaro (bass), and Jamie Peet (drums).

The MotorMusic Studios in Mechelen, Belgium, attract many great musicians to the city. A wide variety of visiting international jazz musicians share their art of making jazz music with us in the DJAZZ series ‘Belgium Sessions’. In these sessions, some of Europe’s finest musicians perform their own, original music. This episode is all about the Habanera Duo, which sprung from a meeting of minds between flutist Marc Grauwels and accordion player Christophe Delporte, around their shared passion for the Argentine tango and the music of Ástor Piazzolla. After hearing how well their instruments blended, these two musicians founded the Habanera Duo. The duo offers the audience an eclectic repertoire that is simultaneously refined and audacious. Expect a beautiful hodgepodge of classical music and jazz, inspired by composers ranging from Piazzolla to Gioacchino Rossini.

Dutch jazz singer Ellen Pels presents her latest release, “Love.” Recorded live at Theater Odeon in Zwolle, the Netherlands, Ellen is joined by The Red Limo String Quartet and her own nine-piece rhythm section. The singer combines her passionate love for music with her own, stirring lyrics, inspired by spiritual philosophers like Paulo Coelho, Eckhard Tolle, and Deepak Chopra. Her spiritually saturated music is challenging and theatrical, yet warm and melodic.

American keyboard player and bandleader Herbie Hancock (1940) achieved success as an incisive, harmonically provocative jazz pianist in the 1960s, then went on to gain wide popularity as a leader of electric jazz-rock groups. One of these, Hancock’s band The Headhunters, ushered in a new era of jazz that appealed to a far wider audience, making jazz listeners out of rhythm and blues fans, and vice versa. In 1974, The Headhunters appeared on German television, playing Palm Grease, Sly, Butterfly, Spank-A-Lee, and Chameleon. Hancock (keys) is joined by Bennie Maupin (saxophones), Paul Jackson (electric bass), Mike Clark (drums) and Bill Summer (percussion).

Louis Armstrong: Live in '59 is one of the only known complete Armstrong concerts from the 1950s to be captured on film. This 55-minute set, filmed in Belgium in 1959, features many of Satchmo’s greatest songs including ‘Mack The Knife’, ‘When It’s Sleepy Time Down South’ and ‘Stompin’ At The Savoy,’ backed by his stellar band the All-Stars, featuring Trummy Young, Peanuts Hucko, Billy Kyle, Danny Barcelona and Mort Herbert.

Regarded as the greatest instrumental soloist of all-time, Stanley Gayetzky, famously known as Stan Getz emerged as one of the most significant musical forces in the world of jazz post World War II. With his distinctively warm and lyrical tone, Getz is fondly dubbed as ‘The Sound’ because of his singularity and musical innovations. His commitment to music is evident from his long body of work that includes over 300 pieces of musical compositions. Ranked among America’s top tenor saxophone players, Getz was a gifted saxophonist who could play just about anything on it, a quality that put him on top of the polls. He is accredited for playing some of the best jazz with some of the best jazzmen in the country. However, his personal life was a rollercoaster ride — tumultuous and loused up by abjection, alcohol, addiction and furious flare-ups. This program shows his last public performance, recorded at Munich Philharmonic Hall, Germany on July 18, 1990. Stan Getz (tenor sax) is accompanied by Kenny Barron (piano), Eddie Del Barrio and Frank Zottoli (synthesizers), Alex Blake (bass) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums).

In 2013 it is 25 years ago that singer and trumpet player Chet Baker mysteriously died, caused by a fall from the window of his hotel room in Amsterdam. His music is more popular than ever. This concert is performed by Fay Claassen, who became internationally known through her album ‘Two Portraits of Chet Baker’. In the U.S. this album was the ‘Best Vocal Album of the Year’. In this concert Fay Claassen brings a tribute to Baker with the most beautiful songs and improvisations.

Georgie Fame, known for "Yeh, Yeh" and "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" makes a triumphant comeback with The Blue Flames. Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames was a popular band in the UK in the '60s, celebrated for its R&B, soul, jazz, ska, and pop sounds. The training was largely inspired by ska, a popular musical style in Jamaican cafes in London at the time. It was the song "Green Onions" from the Booker T & The MG that inspired Georgie to incorporate the Hammond organ into her compositions. This performance by Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames is brimming with blues and soulful sounds that will delight the group's old and new fans.

As one of the best Hammond B3 organ players, Jimmy McGriff (1936-2008) is often lost among great soul-jazz organists from his hometown of Philadelphia. Of the major soul-jazz pioneers, he was the bluesiest and often insisted that he was more of a blues musician than a jazz artist. Regardless, he remained eclectic enough to blur the lines of genres. His sound - deep, down-to-earth grooves drenched in blues and gospel feeling - made him popular with R&B audiences. This 1965 performance is part of the Comblain-la-Tour Jazz Festival.