Brosella: a whole lotta folk and jazz

(Jon Batiste)

There will be a whole lotta folk and jazz resounding from the Théâtre de Verdure next weekend. We've selected four acts your ears wouldn't want to miss out on.

Jon Batiste & The Stay Human Band
This edition of Brosella closes with a rising star. Although the pianist Jon Batiste is only 26, he has already worked with Wynton Marsalis, Prince, Harry Connick, Jr, and Roy Hargrove. Even before his eighteenth birthday, he had already recorded his first CD, Times in New Orleans. As Associate Artistic Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, he organises workshops for young people. In his work as captain of the Stay Human Band, too, he believes passionately that music brings people together. Also on board are a bassist, a drummer, and two brass-players. Together they will take you on an uplifting, revelatory trip.
14/7, 22.30, Theatre Stage

(Elina Duni Quartet © Blerta Kambo)

Elina Duni Quartet
At the age of five, Elina Duni (born in 1981) was already singing for the Albanian national broadcasting service. After the fall of communism, she and her mother moved to Switzerland, where she studied classical piano and discovered jazz. During her studies of singing and composition in Bern, she set up her own quartet. At Brosella, backed up by piano, double bass, and drums, she will present Matanë Malit (“Behind the Mountain”), a blend of folk songs in her mother tongue and jazz. This album, her third (and her first for the ECM label), more than ever contains echoes and poetic reflections of her childhood days in her homeland.
14/7, 18.45, Royal Palm Stage

(Mísia)

Melech Mechaya & Mísia
In contrast to flamenco and tango, fado has never managed to reinvent itself to produce the fado variant of flamenco nuevo or electro tango. Mísia, however, is the exception that proves this rule. The Portuguese, Paris-based musician throws all the fado rules overboard and injects Portuguese nostalgia with various influences and instruments like the violin, accordion, and piano. She is coming to Brosella with the klezmer band Melech Mechaya, yet another sin that will make purists shudder!
13/7, 22.30, Theatre Stage

(Jorge Pardo © Jesus Pardo)

Dacosse & Jorge Pardo
Flamenco is not particularly well known for its groove, but that is precisely what the Belgian electrical bassist Serge Dacosse presents in his fusion of flamenco and (Latin) jazz. After numerous international collaborations, he is now performing with the fantastic saxophonist and flutist Jorge Pardo, a master at blending flamenco and jazz who has previously performed alongside Paco de Lucía and Chick Corea, and who was voted best European jazz artist by the prestigious French Académie du Jazz in January.
13/7, 16.25, Royal Palm Stage

BROSELLA FOLK & JAZZ • 13 & 14/7, 15.00, gratis/gratuit/free, Groentheater/Théâtre de Verdure, Ossegempark/Parc d’Osseghem, Laken/Laeken, www.brosella.be