Brussels Jazz Marathon returns with new name

After the sudden death of music promoter Marc Klein in the summer of 2016 and the bankruptcy of his Brussels-based Jazztronaut, it seemed there would be no 22nd edition of the popular Brussels Jazz Marathon. The free event that brought jazz, in its broadest sense, to numerous bars and squares all over the capital, offered many musicians the opportunity to share their music with a general audience.

City officials were also fans of the yearly jazz fest consider it a fun event for tourists. So the city collaborated with several members of the former organising team who were still eager to get things done.

In the nick of time, they came up with a festival line-up and a brand new name: Brussels Jazz Weekend or, in short, Bru Jazz We. There’s a bit fewer international names than before, but there’s still that trusted mix of indoor and open-air and styles and moods, from be-bop and swing to blues, rock, soul and funk.

The local scene is omnipresent. Philip Cathérine’s piano trio is playing at Sounds Jazz Club. The talented pianist Igor Gehenot launches his new album Delta in the Grote Markt. He also plays the cosy bar L’Archiduc.

Saxophonist Nicolas Kummert, meanwhile, presents his delicate new song cycle La Diversité – along with the great Benin-born, New York-based guitarist Lionel Loueke – at both the Grote Markt and in Flagey. Kummert (pictured) is also part of drummer Yves Peeters’s Gumbo project in Théatre Marni.

Brussels trumpeter Jean-Paul Estiévenart plays Bozar’s Viktor Café with his trio and managed to be in three of the four bands that are programmed on the Grote Markt on Sunday. Altogether, more than 200 concerts and 700 musicians are spread out over 85 squares and venues.

26-28 May, across Brussels. Photo: Dave Stapleton