A longread by Kurt Overbergh (reading time 5 minutes)

During the 2024-2025 concert season, AB opts even more firmly for jazz and welcomes no less than 20 artists from the jazz world. The stream of interesting jazz releases doesn’t seem to abate and through interconnecting (unexpected) collaborations and diverse side-projects, the jazz scene remains thoroughly fascinating.

So AB is proud to have developed a strong jazz line-up, alongside its ‘pop’-rhetoric, that – notably – appeals to an increasingly younger and broader audience. A selection from the programme: 

• Zara McFarlane celebrates Sarah Vaughan's 100th birthday  

While we are exceptionally proud of all our invited jazz guests, one programme does deserve special attention. Namely, the tribute to jazz icon Sarah Vaughan! In 2024, ‘The Divine One’ or ‘Sassy’ – the two nicknames that Vaughan had – would have turned 100. “She’s one of my favourite singers of all time.”  Amy Winehouse once said. And rightly so! Together with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, the American jazz singer Sarah Lois Vaughan (1924-1990) was considered one of the genre’s greats. Enter: Zara McFarlane, who surprised us earlier this year with ‘Sweet Whispers – Celebrating Sarah Vaughan’, according to The Guardian: “A terrific tribute to a jazz legend.” 

• The unbreakable bond between AB x London/UK jazzscene 

Ever since AB presented Gilles Peterson’s genre-defying compilation ‘We Out Here’ at the AB Club in 2018, with the crème de la crème of the London jazz scene, the Brussels-London bond seems unbreakable – even after Brexit. Pretty much every key figure – from Shabaka Hutchings to Theon Cross or Kamaal Williams – has now passed in AB-revue. This season too, we present the tastemakers of the moment. 

Ezra Collective – the first jazz band to receive the prestigious Mercury Prize - now make their 4th visit to AB and present their album ‘Dance No One is Watching’, which they say is an ode to “the sacred, yet joyous act of dancing, an album that musically guides you through a night out in the city.” London collective KOKOROKO – with trumpet player Sheila-Maurice Grey at the helm – is no unknown to AB either. With their rousing and danceable mix of jazz, afrobeat and highlife they are well on their way to selling out their second(!) Main Hall concert. Saxophonist Nubya Garcia dropped by AB for the first time in 2018 and has good memories of that visit: “One of my favourite concert venues is located in Belgium. I played one of my best foreign shows there. That night at AB it was like London was suddenly located in the heart of Belgium. I’ll never forget that warm welcome." Garcia presents her brand new album ‘Odyssey’ on this evening. 

Award-winning  London jazz pianist, singer, composer and producer Ashley Henry says to be influenced by James Baldwin and Angela Davis as well as musicians like Ahmad Jamal and comes to present his latest issue ‘Who We Are’. Lastly, Ill Considered lets loose their Pharoah Sanders-inspired jazz with serious serves of afrobeat, Ethio jazz and echoes of grime and dubstep. 

• AB x Bozar join forces for Arooj Aftab presents ‘Night Reign’ 

Arooj Aftab’s album Vulture Prince was an artistic statement that stunned the international music world in 2021. It doesn’t happen that often that jazz, South Asian classical music, blues and folk form the building blocks of a musical career. The singer with Pakistani roots presents her latest album Night Reign at Bozar. The Guardian: “Night Reign is demonstrating how Aftab’s voice isn’t just a soothing presence but can also evoke everything from solipsism to eroticism and anxiety over these mercurial and moody soundscapes.” 

• AB leaves the door ajar for the new Polish jazz scene 

Lately, we’ve been triggered by the entire scene around Poland’s Astigmatic Records (see too: EABS, Bloto,…) that focuses on ‘fresh and distinctive music drawing on jazz, electronic and hip-hop’. First in line to drop by AB is Omasta: a Polish jazz fivesome that will honour hip-hop legend J Dilla as a part of ‘Dilla Month’. Omasta is powered by a passionate rhythm section complemented by piano, trumpet, saxophone and flute! So it seems to be no coincidence that André 3000 or Shabaka Hutchings also recently took to the flute and came up with some impressive work. 

• AB x impressive Belgians: Black Flower + SPOOK + Trance Plantations + … 

Lots of new Belgian releases during the coming concert season from musicians that we at AB have been supporting for years, including Black Flower. Pretty much an AB in-house band that still performs a lively, hypnotic mix of ethiojazz, afrobeat, psychedelica and oriental influences about which guru Gilles Peterson once oracled: “Brilliant!” Two Black Flower members – Nathan Daems and Falk Schrauwen – also emerged as Trance Plantations and make ‘fictional Tribe music (from space)’. That has already resulted in a self-titled debut album on which they collaborated with The Comet Is Coming members Danalogue and Betamax. 

Their album ‘Behind Your Face’ was released on the Brugge jazz label W.E.R.F. records, that we are dedicating a true label night to by way of a wonderful triple bill containing (young) talent like Belgian-Brazilian vocalist Helena Casella whose deep, soft and warm voice blends R&B, soul, hip-hop and modern jazz with the colourful sounds of Brazil. Lastly, SPOOK is a new (super)trio that emerged in the Belgian jazz heavens, with drummer Simon Segers (De Beren Gieren, Sylvie Kreusch), contrabassist Nicolas Rombouts (Ottla) and guitarist Filip Wauters (Backback). SPOOK sounds like a hypnotic trip: exciting, dark, psychedelic, Lynchian. 

• From AB to us: Kalia Vandever + The Messthetics x James Brandon Lewis + …  

The birthplace of jazz is still the US, and so we would like to come full circle. With José James, we invite yet another frequent visitor who has now notched up no less than 13 (!) AB shows. American trombone player Kalia Vandever impressed us recently with her album ‘We Fell in Turn’: minimal splendour, as if time stood still. Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis already dropped by AB earlier this year with his own quartet, but is now present in an unexpected collaboration with The Messthetics. Basically: the rhythm section of post-hardcore band Fugazi. Together, they proudly maintain the legacy of the legendary label Impulse! Records. Finally, Hearts And Minds unites three impressive musicians: Jason Stein (Natural Information Society), Paul Giallorenzo (Ben LaMar Gay) and Gerry Hemingway (who earned his stripes with the likes of Anthony Braxton and Cecil Taylor). Their most recent album Illuminescence is out via Astral Spirits, which champions The New Wave of heavy free jazz. 

Kurt Overbergh 
Artistic Director AB  

AGENDA:
 
2024: 

• 06.10: ILL CONSIDERED | Tickets
• 16.10: AROOJ AFTAB PRESENTS NIGHT REIGN | Tickets
• 16.10: HEARTS AND MINDS FEAT. JASON STEIN x PAUL GIALLORENZO x GERRY HEMINGWAY | Tickets
• 25:10: W.E.R.F. RECORDS PRESENTS SPOOK + TRANCE PLANTATIONS + HELENA CASELLA | Tickets
• 01.11: EZRA COLLECTIVE (SOLD OUT) 
• 05.11: THE MESSTHETICS AND JAMES BRANDON LEWIS | Tickets
• 06.11: KOKOROKO | Tickets
• 10.11: KALIA VANDEVER | Tickets
• 03:12: ZARA MCFARLANE CELEBRATES SARAH VAUGHAN’S 100TH BIRTHDAY | Tickets 

2025: 

• 04:02: OMASTA PLAYS J DILLA | Tickets
• 16.02: NUBYA GARCIA PRESENTS ‘ODESSEY’ | Tickets
• 22:02: BLACK FLOWER | Tickets
• 02.04: ASHLEY HENRY PRESENTS ‘WHO WE ARE’ | Tickets