Marni Jazz Festival to feature concert with Yannick Peeters on 21 September

The Marni Jazz Festival is getting ready to entertain music fans with a series of concerts in Brussels showcasing one of the genre’s most distinctive musical instruments from 14 to 22 September.

This year, it’s the turn of the double bass to star in the popular annual event. Five concerts, including a carte blanche evening, will see the string instrument take centre stage.

As ever, the festival welcomes renowned Belgian musicians (pictured above) who have selected emerging talents from home and abroad to join them onstage.

They include experienced Belgian bass player Yannick Peeters on 21 September, who invites well-known drummer Tom Rainey to join her trio in performing the project GingerBlackGinger.

A stalwart of the downtown New York scene since the 1990s, Rainey “is a musician who oscillates between avant-garde notions and the mainstream; when he plays, invention hangs in the air,” says the LA Times.

After launching in 2020, the band has undergone a change in lineup while remaining focused on delivering a sound that is as bold as it is authentic. Rawness, fragility, lyricism, originality and integrity form the trademark musicality of the talented group.

Peeters and Rainey are joined by other familiar jazz names, Frederick Leroux on guitar and Frans Van Isacker on clarinet and sax for one of the highlights of the festival.

The double bass is equally honoured in the rest of the programme. Sal La Rocca + Eliott Knuets (Bel) kick off the series on 14 September. They are followed by the Nicolas Thys Trio + Hermon Mehari (Eri/US) on 15 September and Sam Gerstmans (Bel) in a carte blanche evening on 19 September. The festival concludes with Giuseppe Millaci Vogue Trio + Takumi Nakayama (Bel/Jap) on 22 September.

All of the concerts are staged at the lively and convivial Marni theatre, which has been offering a varied cultural programme for the past 20 years. As well as jazz, it presents theatre, dance, contemporary circus and visual art shows.

Marni Jazz Festival
14 to 22 September
Rue de Vergnies 25
Ixelles 

Photos: Marni Jazz Festival 2022 – Manou Gallo ©Marni; the five double bass musicians performing at Marni Jazz Festival 2023 ©Arnaud Ghys. Sorry! Our prize giveaway has now closed and the winners have been notified.