Today, Jazz Middelheim, which is being held from 3 through 6 August in Antwerp’s Park Den Brandt, is announcing several of the artists that will be performing this summer. Randy Weston, Bill Frisell ‘All We Are Saying’, Mingus Big Band, and Tony Allen Quartet: Tribute to Art Blakey have all confirmed that they’ll be in the park in Antwerp on 5 August. Ruben Machtelinckx will be demonstrating the various forms of his art on the Club Stage.
Saturday, 5 August 2017, the third day of Jazz Middelheim 2017, is an homage to the jazz greats. Randy Weston, the grandfather of jazz, has achieved an incredible career spanning no less than seven decades (!!). His most recent album, The African Nubian Suite, is a blend of rhythmic African heritage and distinct jazz elements. The influences of the greatest American composers and jazz legends, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, will audibly usher in the night when this other jazz great literally and figuratively shuts the festival day down. But before Mr Weston takes to the stage, legendary guitarist Bill Frisell will reinterpret John Lennon’s musical oeuvre, under the name ‘All We Are Saying’. He and his band have gotten rid of all the lyrics in the numbers, making room for the underlying elegant and melodious jazz versions. Mingus Big Band has also confirmed it will be there the same day. None other than bassist Charles Mingus took to the stage at Jazz Middelheim 1976, and now this summer, the Mingus Big Band, which won a Grammy in 2011 for ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album’, will be performing a variation on Mingus’ work that encompasses the best parts of his legacy. Tony Allen Quartet will get the party started on 5 August with a tribute to bebop drummer Art Blakey.
Ruben Machtelinckx is the star of the Club Stage. Together with likeminded artists that take improv to the pinnacle of great art, he will be performing consecutive sets with Linus + Økland/Van Heertum/Zach, Machtelinckx/Jensson/
The entire Jazz Middelheim 2017 programme will be announced at 11 a.m. on 2 May.
Tickets are on sale via the website www.jazzmiddelheim.be and in Fnac shops.
Info: www.jazzmiddelheim.be 3-6 August 2017, Park Den Brandt, Antwerp
