Thursday 10 through Sunday 13 September offers a tempting number of single-night choices across Belgium. The strongest self-contained route sits in Ixelles, where Théâtre Marni opens the third Marni Jazz Festival with three consecutive 20:00 concerts: Adja on Thursday 10 September, Elly Brouckmans’s carte blanche on Friday 11 September, and Napsis with guests on Saturday 12 September. The festival continues through 19 September under the #WILDOPEN theme, presenting jazz as a field connected to soul, electronics and songs as much as instrumental tradition.[1]

That makes these opening nights useful as a miniature festival within the weekly calendar. Each bill has a different centre of gravity, yet the progression is unusually legible: a singer and songwriter with roots in theatre and jazz; a saxophonist developing a new extended work; then a band stretching a song-based language into an album-release ensemble. Théâtre Marni’s programme gives each evening its own identity while keeping the wider festival’s appetite for movement between forms in view.[1][2][3][4]

Thursday 10 September: Adja opens with jazz-soul

Adja starts the run at 20:00. Théâtre Marni frames the concert as jazz-soul, an apt entry point for a festival whose opening weekend travels across several approaches to the music. The Brussels-based artist Adja Fassa brings together singing, composition and theatre-making; her published artist biography traces a musical vocabulary shaped by jazz alongside R&B, soul and gospel. That background gives Thursday a voice-led beginning, with storytelling and songcraft central to the evening’s focus.[1][2]

Her 2025 debut album, Golden Retrieve Her, gives the date a clear recent reference point, while the setting keeps it inside a festival designed around live energy and stylistic openness. For listeners arriving from contemporary soul, singer-songwriter music or jazz, Adja is the point where those paths meet. It is also a concise way into the week: one artist whose practice joins musical and theatrical experience without treating either as decoration.[1][2]

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

Friday 11 September: Elly Brouckmans’s Sweet Suite

Friday shifts the emphasis from song to a specific new project. Elly Brouckmans brings The Sweet Suite as a carte blanche at 20:00, described by Théâtre Marni as modern lyrical jazz with French impressionist colours. The programme identifies its defining setup: Brouckmans’s jazz quartet joined by a vocal trio. A commission-like format suits a festival opening weekend, since the concert is built around an encounter created for this context instead of a standard repertory set.[1]

Brouckmans is a Brussels-based alto and baritone saxophonist, trained at LUCA School of Arts and continuing her master’s studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussels. Her work across the Belgian big-band circuit, including Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Hnita Bigband and Rebirth::Collective, supplies useful context for a night centred on arranging voices and instruments. The suite’s stated impressionistic thread suggests close attention to colour, phrasing and ensemble blend across its expanded lineup.[1][3]

Saturday 12 September: Napsis enlarges the frame

Saturday completes the opening trio with Napsis + guests at 20:00, presented as an album release. Théâtre Marni describes the project as modern jazz and groove-minded trip-hop, with an ambitious orchestral dimension; its festival page specifies 13 musicians for the release performance. That scale supplies a genuine change of scene after the previous evenings: the final night moves from a voice-centred band, through a commissioned suite, into a larger collective statement.[1]

Napsis’s own profile places its four musicians in a language that moves from modern jazz to alternative rock, with arrangements leaving room for individual expression. Its listed influences include the Beatles, Portishead, Brad Mehldau and Björk, a useful map for the Saturday bill’s position between songs, texture and improvisatory freedom. The event’s guests and expanded personnel make this the weekend’s broadest sonic canvas at Théâtre Marni.[1][4]

Planning the three-night run

All three concerts begin at 20:00 at Théâtre Marni, Rue de Vergnies 25 in 1050 Brussels, making the run simple to approach as three separate evenings or a full Thursday-to-Saturday sequence. The festival page also lists Alain Dauchot’s black-and-white jazz portraits in the bar through the end of October, with free access on performance nights. Check Théâtre Marni’s official pages again before leaving for current ticket, access and timetable information.[1]

Sources

  1. Marni Jazz Festival — Théâtre Marni
  2. Adja — Belgium Booms
  3. Elly Brouckmans — JazzInBelgium
  4. NAPSiS — L’intégrale de la musique