In Belgium, the country of its original inventor, Adolphe Sax, the saxophone has recently been reinvented by François Louis. Known worldwide albeit only by saxophone players and flutists as the inventor and builder of a complete new range of legendary mouthpieces, reed ligatures and reeds, Louis has invented the instrument of the third millennium. Mel Lewis’ 1984 "20 Years at the Village Vanguard" was the first album that featured a François Louis’ revolutionary hand-made mouthpiece of boxwo …

On Sunday, March 23rd 2003, the audience of the ‘Botanique’ in Brussels was surprised by a drastic change in the line up of Joe Zawinul’s Syndicate, but as soon as the music started, it became clear that bassist Linley Marthe from Mauritius and drummer Marc Gilmore would by far exceed the wildest expectations of those who are familiar with the bass of Etienne Mbappe and the drums of Paco Sery. After almost sixty years of uninterrupted piano playing and composing, Joe Zawinul (born in Vienna, …

Only ten days after Joachim Kühn had performed solo in the Castle Vilain XIIII, situated just outside the idyllic village of Leut (Limburg-Belgium), the intimate concert hall of the castle with its Louis XV furnishing from ages ago, provided the scenery for Dutch contemporary jazz ensemble Nimbus with special guest David Liebman. Nimbus is a full acoustic ensemble, except for the electric guitar (played by Florian Zenker), which with its arsenal of sound effects and pedals, adds extra space …

To promote his new CD ‘Cinematique,’ bassist-composer Chris Minh Doky has been recently touring in Europe with a powerful trio featuring himself on double bass, Makoto Ozone on piano and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts on drums. After some gigs in London, the trio travelled to Brussels on January 13th for a sold out concert at the ‘Music Village,’ a jazz club that started a little more than two years ago in the center of the European capital, two minutes walking from the town hall in a two century-old war …

One of the fastest growing jazz festivals in Europe at this time is the Blue Note Festival in Gent (Belgium), that made its maiden flight in July 2001 as the very first jazz festival in the world to bear the name of the famous record label. From the beginning, the festival has always consisted of two main parts: "All That Jazz!" which provides a stage for mainstream, modern and avant garde jazz, and "All That Jazz?" during which new fusion forms of jazz can be discovered. While a