<span class="bolditalic">Gent Jazz enthusiasts can breathe easy again after a turbulent year for the organisers.</span>The 21st edition of the festival is assured and will take place as usual at the stunning Bijloke site with a lineup worthy of praise. Well-established artists like Herbie Hancock and Nils Frahm are joined by fresh and emerging sounds including MonoNeon and Kamaal Williams. We listed some recommendations with lots of local talent and exciting bands. Enjoy!
Cover: Ão shot by Yaqine Hamzaoui
Kamaal Williams
06.07.2023, Main Stage
As one of the leading lights of the London Jazz movement, alongside the likes of Yussef Dayes and Shabaka Hutchings, Williams was jointly responsible for the renaissance of UK Jazz. The power lies in diversity. With a fusion of hip-hop, R&B, dubstep and house, he shows there are truly no limits to his skills. In concert, Kamaal Williams takes you on an equally eclectic journey. Departing from a prepared setlist, the band almost always goes where the music leads them, culminating in sometimes heavy club-inspired synths and drum licks that take the crowd from civilised head nodding to dancing in no time.
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MDC III
06.07.2023, Garden Stage
MDC III is the brainchild of saxophonist Mattias De Craene. Obsessed with the absolute freedom and spiritual aura around the album Interstellar Space, created by saxophonist John Coltrane and drummer Rashied Ali, MDC III pushes further with not one but two drummers. Together with key figures from the Belgian jazz scene (Simon Segers, Lennert Jacobs), fireworks on stage are guaranteed. Their latest album Drawn In Dusk creates an interesting conversation between the instruments and their players, free of all ballast, extending their palette with electronics and beautifully diverse in its sound.
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SPOOK
06.07.2023, Garden Stage
What started as a casual jam session ended with a surprising debut album that hovers somewhere between jazz, improvisation and country music. ‘Free country’ or ‘Post Western’ is how the trio describes themselves. Drum, double bass and steel guitar are all equally essential to bring the sound they’re aiming for, but the steel guitar of Filip Wauters (The Whodads, BackBack) elevates them above jazz or prog rock, adding a deliciously raw Americana flavour on top.
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Ão
9.07.2023, Garden Stage
Ão [ɐ͂w̃] means, depending on the pronunciation, something beautiful, sad, painful, express wonders or plain nonsense. What began as a symbiosis between the fragile but powerful voice of Brenda Corijn and the southern guitar sounds of Siebe Chau grew into a four-piece band, adding ambient synths and percussion. Mixing fado, flamenco, pop influences and subtle electronics, Ão resounds in Rosalia's more serene songs, James Blake's ambient work and FKA Twigs (if she spoke Portuguese). Belgian legends dEUS invited them for a support act in Lisbon, and Seattle-based KEXP saw potential in them. Ão means many things, come and discover for yourself what meaning you prefer.
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ESINAM
09.07.2023, Main Stage
With her debut album Shapes in Twilights of Infinity, Belgian multi-instrumentalist ESINAM reveals a poetically layered dialogue between past and present. She embraces the future, with influences from hip-hop, trip-hop and psychedelia, but with respect for the ancestral. Her Ghanaian roots provide yet another layer of liveliness on top of the rhythms, grooves and futuristic flute sounds that complement her music. ‘Poetic Afro-jazz but with a beat bumping enough to make it danceable,’ writes Resident Advisor. Come enjoy this Belgian pride and the diversity that enriches our musical landscape every day.
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