The jazz route worth following during the Thursday 1 October–Sunday 4 October weekend is concentrated in Brussels, and its movement is clear: from a local canon being actively reworked to small-group music that keeps form in motion. Thursday’s anniversary programme at Flagey supplies the historical centre; Friday and Saturday at Jazz Station stretch that centre outward through a new Swiss-American-French quartet and the long-running Hermia–Ceccaldi–Darrifourcq trio. These are three useful views of a scene sustained by repertoire, recurring collaborators and appetite for risk.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

A living archive at Flagey

Begin at Flagey on Thursday 1 October at 20:00 with Nathalie Loriers’ “1,2,3… piano,” presented as a double bill with the Belgian Jazz Ensemble and Tutu Puoane. The occasion is Les Lundis d’Hortense’s 50th anniversary, yet the programme is built around musicians and arrangements in the present tense. Loriers moves through formats from solo piano to sextet with Fabrice Alleman, Bert Joris, Phil Abraham, Sam Gerstmans and Thierry Gutmann. The accompanying ensemble gathers ten players across generations, with Puoane as guest vocalist, to revisit music associated with Laurent Blondiau, Philip Catherine, Kris Defoort, Steve Houben, Toots Thielemans, Pierre Van Dormael, David Linx and Diederik Wissels.[1][2][3]

See which of your friends are going, and find people to go with.

Get the app

Download CrowdMate on the App Store Get CrowdMate on Google Play

Sonic Organism at Jazz Station

On Friday 2 October at 20:00, Jazz Station hosts Arbenz X Osby / Arbenz / Moutin’s “Sonic Organism.” The lineup puts Greg Osby’s saxophone alongside Michael Arbenz on piano, François Moutin on bass and Florian Arbenz on drums. Jazz Station describes the project as part of Florian Arbenz’s Conversation_LAB collective, with the music ranging between hard-swinging solos, free improvisation and dreamier soundscapes. That breadth makes it the weekend’s cleanest bridge from Flagey’s community-minded retrospective to an international quartet designed around conversation in real time.[4][7]

Hermia, Ceccaldi and Darrifourcq test the frame

Return to Jazz Station on Saturday 3 October at 18:00 for Hermia / Ceccaldi / Darrifourcq’s “Unicorn And Flexibility.” Saxophonist Manuel Hermia, cellist Valentin Ceccaldi and drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq have worked as a trio since 2012. Hermia’s account calls their approach “brutal jazz”: free-jazz and narrative improvisation fed by rock, noise, contemporary music and world-music materials. The group’s current project foregrounds abrupt changes in timing, tempo and sonic matter, giving this final stop a sharply physical relation to improvisation. Its presence beside the Flagey anniversary makes the thread tangible: Brussels jazz carries its memory through musicians who also keep pulling at its edges.[5][6][7]

Plan the three-night route

Start at Flagey on Thursday at 20:00, then make Jazz Station your Friday and Saturday address at 20:00 and 18:00. The three shows sit within the same opening weekend, though each uses a different scale and vocabulary. Recheck Flagey, Jazz Station and the artists’ official pages before travelling, since running times, access information and ticket availability can change.[1][4][5][7]

Sources

  1. The Best of Belgian Jazz 26|27 — Flagey
  2. Carte blanche Nathalie Loriers — Les Lundis d’Hortense
  3. Belgian Jazz Ensemble & Tutu Puoane — Les Lundis d’Hortense
  4. Arbenz X Osby / Arbenz / Moutin ‘Sonic Organism’ — Jazz Station
  5. Hermia / Ceccaldi / Darrifourcq “Unicorn And Flexibility” — Jazz Station / UTick
  6. Darrifourcq Hermia Ceccaldi — Manuel Hermia
  7. Jazz Station · Centre Vivant du Jazz à Bruxelles — Jazz Station