Schedule

Jazzed Out shows that each and every imaginable spot is a suitable location for a jazz session. Unusual locations, in several of the world’s metropoles, provide the setting for brief jazz performances: from garage buildings, multi-storey car parks, street corners, subway trains and parks. The sheer rawness of the metropoles merges with the musical creations of various artists who drop by in search for the perfect ‘Urban Stage’. In this episode, Paris serves as a backdrop to sets by the likes of bassist Avishai Cohen, the Anat Cohen Quartet and the Jacques Schwarz-Bart Quintet, who show that jazz is at home everywhere.

‘The legend of the groove’ is a series of documentaries devoted to the musicians who were most influential on contemporary hip hop, soul, rhythm 'n' blues, and on the course of history. Between the late 1950s and now, these musicians radically changed music. Although sometimes hardly in the public eye, they have all been major sources of inspiration for today's major artists: Prince, Erykah Badu, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

At this live 1984 performance at Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall in New Orleans, veteran jazz trumpeter, singer, and actor Jack Sheldon and his all-star ensemble perform a program of straight-ahead jazz pieces that finds them sizzling no end. Together with his stellar band of pianist Dave Frishberg, guitarist John Pisano, bassist Dave Stone, and drummer Frank Capp, Sheldon works his way through a magically swinging "Don't get around much anymore" followed by a heartfelt rendition of a Spanish arrangement of "Historia De Un Amor”. After several standards, a lovely interpretation of Jobim’s “Corcovado” paves the way for a high-energy set closer, “The Joint is Jumpin’”, which is illustrative of the irrepressible swing that this jazz icon’s concerts have been bringing to his audiences ever since he first picked up his trumpet in the early 1950s.

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 MotorMusic Jazz Sessions episode features the Dutch Floris Kappeyne van de Coppello with his trio. His fresh and modern sounds won him multiple prizes that took him across the world: France, Switzerland, Singapore, and Tanzania. Accompanied by Wouter Kühne and Tijs Klaassen, their work was released with the Challenge Records International label. Great talent to keep an eye on!

Trumpeter Jacques Kuba Séguin’s ensemble unites some of Montreal’s most expressive musicians: apart from Jacques Kuba Séguin, double bassist Frédéric Alarie, pianist Jonathan Cayer, and drummer Kevin Warren deliver subtle but strong lyrical moments, that make it hard not to be touched by the musical bond of this group. The experience of their ‘Litania Projekt’ seems to stop time for an instant. Together with his expressive musicians, Jacques presents a program that swings between modernity and tradition.

2006 closed with a spectacular festival of Argentinean music broadcast live from Buenos Aires. At the height of the Argentinean summer, the Orquesta Filarmónica del Teatro Colon under Daniel Barenboim (conductor & soloist) join bandoneon virtuoso Leopoldo Federico and his Orquesta Tipica for an extraordinary New Year’s Eve show with popular tangos and Latin American orchestra classics. The old master of tango, José Carli, created enchanting new arrangements of works by Argentinean artists Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Gardel, Julio de Caro, Alberto Ginastera and Horacio Salgán. Performances by leading tango dancers Mora Godoy and Junior Cervilla from Buenos Aires add atmosphere and round off the night.

Thomas Carbou and Patrick Graham share an almost telepathic rapport, blending spontaneous improvisation, electronic looping, and Brazilian and Indian musical influences to create ecstatic groove pieces and dream-like soundscapes. They use a wide array of instruments, including a custom-built 8-string guitar, cuatro, bouzouki, cajón, frame drums, berimbau, udu, and metal percussion instruments, as well as samplers and laptops, adding their own hypnotic vocals to the mix. This concert was recorded at Montréal’s Le Bleury Vinyl Bar, near the Place des Festivals, known worldwide as the venue for the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Teus Nobel is a Dutch trumpet and flugelhorn player. As a little boy, he was inspired by ‘power’ trumpeters such as Maynard Ferguson and Bill Chase. While studying at the conservatory, he played both as jazz player and as a commercial session musician at musicals. After his time at the conservatory, he started playing in the Royal Netherlands Air Force Orchestra, playing march music influenced by pop and jazz. Today’s broadcast was recorded at the Amsterdam BIMhuis. Teus dedicates his compositions to his all-time heroes Jarmo Hoogendijk, Woody Shaw, Christian Scott, Roy Hargrove and Eric Vloeimans. This performance is based on his second album ‘Legacy’.

SHYRE is the creative collaboration launched by Montreal-born vocalist and pianist Sarah Rossy. This five-member group mixes instrumental textures with ethereal ambience, taking the listener on a journey through passages of prose with unique aesthetics. SHYRE fuses pop-folk and jazz with symphonic timbres, and psychedelic ambience, employing lush strings, dynamic rhythms, and angelic harmonies. The resulting soundscape is innocent, yet fascinating. Sail away on the aural wings of music from their debut album New Year (2013).

This might come unexpected, but the Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO) is not the kind of jazz orchestra that sticks to standards. They prefer to achieve the highest level by composing original music, creating unique arrangements, and playing inventively as well as passionately. In fact, it really is jazz with a dynamic orchestral sound, with a classic strength in which each musician is also a brilliant soloist. Call it an ‘orchestrated passion for jazz’ that incites BJO to create world-class music. Founded in 1993 by Frank Vaganée, Serge Plume and Marc Godfroid, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra is recognised and has been subsidised by the Flemish Government since. Brussels Jazz Orchestra is orchestra in residence at Flagey in Brussels. During this project the BJO performs with David Linx. The Belgian jazz singer will resort to any idiom, any language, any time signature. Occasionally he seems to dispense with bar lines altogether, or he will go beyond lyrics, as he abandons his own words for some free-wheeling scat.

Under the Surface is an improvisational jazz band formed by drummer Joost Lijbaart, vocalist Sanne Rambags, and guitarist Bram Stadhouders. Sanne Rambags, the youngest artist of the trio, is one of the few vocalists of her generation who able to improvise effortlessly, be it by using her voice as an instrument blending with the sounds of the band, or by performing her own poetry. Joost Lijbaart, known from bands by Yuri Honing, is one of the top artists of the Dutch jazz scene. Guitarist Bram Stadhouders is one of the most renowned musicians of improvisational music in Europe. Together, the three Dutch musicians have developed their own “universal language” within the genre. Their performance at Bimhuis showcases their unique intergenerational chemistry and hypnotizing sound. Bimhuis Amsterdam provides a platform for pioneering national and international musicians by hosting over 300 concerts a year.

The most spectacular concert of African music ever staged, featuring nothing but Africa’s finest musicians performing before an audience of more than 50,000 at the recent AFRICA LIVE Roll Back Malaria Concert in Dakar, Senegal. Artists include Youssou Ndour (Senegal) with the Grand Orchestra of Cairo (Egypt), Baaba Maal (Senegal), Rokia Traore (Mali), Corneille (Rwanda), Manu Dibango (Cameroon), Angélique Kidjo (Benin), Orchestra Baobab (Senegal), Awadi (Senegal), Tony Allen (Nigeria), Seun Kuti (Nigeria), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast) and Tinariwen (Mali). All bringing the catastrophic malaria crisis currently gripping Africa to the attention of the world.