Brussels Jazz Weekend gets buzzing with home-grown talent

Brussels Jazz Weekend was a particular victim of the lockdown years, given that its completely free admission programme encourages maximum venue-hopping, this three-day festival utilising a comprehensive spread of the city’s music venues, as well as four major outdoor stages. Crowds spill out everywhere, cross-pollinating as the complex programme options intersect. The BJW offers an excellent chance to take a crash course in the Belgian scene, and its satellite zones of blues, electronic, gypsy and Afro fusions. The weather was mostly sunny and encouraging, aside from a persistently rainy Sunday afternoon, but smaller indoor scenes could offer shelter from that sometimes-heavy deluge.

Friday made a mellow beginning with Grand Place sets by veteran guitarist Philip Catherine and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, but it was also possible to precede that main event by catching the bluesy rollin’ singer and harp-blower Steven Troch at the St. Catherine stage. Saturday’s run started earlier in the day and illustrated how likely it is to discover unfamiliar outfits. The Blue Mockingbirds played a 3pm set at De Ultieme Hallucinatie, a fancy old restaurant, their 1920s and ‘30s swing style emboldened by a heavy book of original compositions, gently subverting the old style. There were ditties about sheep-shearing and smoke rings, much reed-horn swapping ensuing, with trombone, banjo and guitar sharpening the push, plus an amazing drum solo, zooming in on small percussion details of woodblocks, pandeiro and cowbell. The altoman chirped out a whistling solo, and the brasserie swayed to ‘Sweet Lorraine’, one of several songs sung by the band’s guitarist.

Back at Grand Place, the Jazz Station Big Band’s finest number was their last, a terminally funky strutter, led by their fine bassist Boris Schmidt, and topped by a triple trumpet joint-solo, the drums and guitar also locking in tight. This is the house band of the Jazz Station club, although we don’t get so many chances to catch them onstage. Sounds Swing Machine was another hot combo grown out of a major Brussels joint (Sounds Jazz Club), creating a joyous and highly amusing dance scene at the new Bourse outdoor stage. The impromptu dancefloor was populated by ever more ridiculous movers, skilled but outrageous. It was frequently possible to head from a more extreme set into a more trad environment, therefore creating another sound of surprise, moving from free blurting to swing honkin’, then back again. Speaking of which, a short shunt across the street to Ancienne Belgique found the large ensemble Boggamasta (a Flat Earth Society offshoot) making music that sounded like Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage, as if he’d been influenced by rap, with lead vocalist and guitarist David Bovée specialising in bass-tweaked hip hop rhymes, set to a wildly dynamic horn-loaded thematic charge.

After that, the heaviness was cranked up even further at the Roskam bar’s late night Bestiaal gig. Lead guitar was dominant, with a post Sonic Youth weightiness, but the presence of an upright bass ensured a strong jazz push amidst the sludge progressions, adding a bowed drone, then accelerating with a rockier number, as howling shapes eagle-swooped over doom progressions, powered by 13 pedals and a wah-wah. Scatter drums, walking bass and fast-strum guitar alternated with a Turkish style, clipped runs suggesting early John McLaughlin.

That final rainy day offered the spectacle of diehard alternative jazz beatniks huddled and sodden, down the front of the Grand Place stage, completely immersed in the sharp-contrast virtuosity of the French-Belgian trio of Darrifourcq-Hermia-Ceccaldi. Never have we seen this opulent square so empty, as the heaviest bout of rain fell, but this vista actually heightened the surrealism of such radical sonic disruptors performing right in the very heart of Brussels. Simultaneously, your scribe was curious to imagine the alternative scenario of a sunny afternoon’s packed crowd being gradually sent off scared by this trio’s uncompromising racket. That would have made an equally intriguing sight.

Later, on the same stage, as the weather improved, Toots Thielemans Revisited featured the revered harmonica player’s repertoire, although interpreted in a fashion almost totally unlike the originals, with a hard fusion drive. This was actually quite a successful strategy, providing an unexpected set of tactics.

For the second night, a climactic pair of sets powered out their condensed energies at Roskam, as the Max Johnson Trio (above) continued their European tour, bringing NYC invention to this small but crowded bar. Bassman and composer Johnson has two prime colleagues, with saxophonist Anna Webber and drummer Michael Sarin adding equally intense extremity. The latter was a particular revelation, with a more extrovert attack in his playing, although often cutting back to smaller, lightweight sticks or brushes. Johnson hurt his strings with power-progressions, while Webber circulated around his axis at a softer rate. Sarin could also up his clatter to oil drum size, and Webber used harsh overblowing as a surprise weapon, ‘The Quick One’ soon revealing itself as a favourite tune. This trio travelled from exploratory hesitation to full throttle brutality, silencing the entire bar into taut concentration.