Belgium - Brussels Part II

 Whilst in Brussels we can't skip Belgium's greatest musical star, Jacques Brel (1929-1978), who was born in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek.  Coming from a Flemish background, his family chose to speak French.  He was not academically gifted, and was bored working in his father's cardboard factory, as his creative genius wanted to burst out.  He relocated to Paris in 1953 and became an international star, his many songs covered by international stars, but rarely equalled in intensity and passion.  His breakthrough hit came in 1957 with Quand On N'a Que l'Amour:

Probably his most famous song, which has been covered in various languages, but never as good or as emotionally intense as the original is Ne Me Quitte Pas:

Also born in Brussels was Jazz composer and harmonica player Toots Thielemans (1922-2016).  He had a long and distinguished career playing with just about any of the Jazz greats, too many to list here.  He popularised the harmonica as a genuine voice in the genre.  He was active into a venerable age and gave a concert on his 90th birthday, from which this clip is taken: Midnight Cowboy:

Rapper Paul van Haver, aka Stromae, cites Jacques Brel as one of his early influences, but he has a much more modern take with rap and electronic music.  He was born in 1985 in the Brussels neighbourhood of Etterbeek to Rwandan Tutsi father and a Belgian mother.  He has achieved quite some international success.  Here's one of his hits called Papaoutai:

That's it from Brussels, next we'll be heading north to the province of Antwerp in Flanders.  As usual you can follow my virtual road trip on my tripline map. 

Belgium - Brussels

 So we arrive in the capital of Belgium, Brussels or Bruxelles or Brussel, the bilingual capital of Europe.  Like most capital cities it is a big melting pot of cultures, which is reflected in the local music scene, so we'll be hearing music styles from all over the world here.

We start with my favourite band here, Jaune Toujours.  Their style has been described as mestiza, a blend of salsa, Latin, ska, Balkan and punk.  The term they use for their style is Europeana, as opposed to Americana.  They sing in French, Flemish and English.  This song called La Bruxellois is from their 2009 album Kolektiv:

Here's another nice ska number from their 2018 album Europeana called Save Le Monde.  It's a beautiful day to save the world... :)

The Ångströmers is a cluster of sound artists and musicians around the Brussels record label Ångström.  In their latest collaboration they have teamed up with Haitian 6-piece band Chouk Bwa where Afro-Caribbean Voodoo polyrhythms meet bass-weight dub electronics.  An explosive mix, mostly recorded in Brussels, their album Vodou Alé came out in May.  This is the title track from the album:

Brussels other claim to fame is that with some 40 Gnawa musicians living in the city it takes the claim as Gnawa capital of Europe.  Jola is a project to bring most of them together to record an album, which was released in March as Jola - Hidden Gnawa Music in Brussels, which is available on Bandcamp.  In Moroccon dialect 'Jola' means tour is the term for an essential step in a musician's initiation to the tagnawit (the way of the Gnawa).  The launch concert for the album got cancelled, because of the Covid pandemic, but instead they recorded some of the musicians in their homes.  On the album the sound is of course a lot fuller with the musicians playing together rather than solo with plenty percussion:

Five-piece hybrid jazz combo Black Flower piloted by saxophonist and flutist Nathan Daems mixes Ethio-jazz and oriental sounds with afrobeat and dub.  In 2016 they spent 2 days in a studio mixing a largely improvised album called Ghost Radio, which was initially released as a limited run on vinyl.  It sold out fast and they have recently re-released the vinyl as well as a digital download version.  Here's a track from that album called Ray:

Also inspired by Ethio-jazz is 6-piece combo Azmari, who were created in 2015 fusing it with psychgroove, funk and dub.  Azmari, meaning one who praises in Amharic, is the term for an Ethiopian singer/musician equivalent to a European bard or a West African griot.  They only appear to have one EP so far called Ekera released in 2019. Here's the hypnotic opening track to the EP called Dolmuş:

Finally, Refugees for Refugees and is an ensemble of 10 accomplished musicians, displaced by wars and political instability, who got stranded in Brussels and formed a band under the guidance of Belgian Tristan Driessens.  The musicians hail from Syria, Tibet, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Their music is all about breaking boundaries and represents all their respective cultures along the historic southern Silk Road.  It's a beautiful and varied collection of songs and well worth supporting.  Their second album, released in 2019, is called Amina and here is the title track from it:

I hope you enjoyed our international tour of Brussels.  As usual you follow my virtual journey on my Tripline map.

Belgium - Wallonia

 Belgium!  The country of the best chips in the world, with mussels(!), Chocolate (!), a bewildering range of weird and wonderful beers and a language split down the middle resulting in endless squabbles.  To the Dutch and French they are the butt of endless jokes, but they are an endearing lot though.  

We start our journey through this country in the French speaking part of the country in Wallonia. Our first stop is in the far east of the country in the province of Limbourg, which the folk band Cecilia call their home.  They are a trio of hurdy gurdy, bagpipes and accordion churning out cheerful balfolk or Boombal with influences from Ireland to the Balkans and everything in between.  This is the opening tune from their 2018 album Pastourelle called De Zwarte Beek - Mols Hoop:

Belgium has a long and proud and tradition in Jazz beginning with Romani-French Jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), who was born in Liberchie, just north of Charleroi.  He was the first major talent of the genre to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant.  He collaborated with some of the greats of his era, including Stéphane Grapelli, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Duke Ellington.  Sadly he died too early at the age of 43 from a stroke.  Here's a short summary of his life:

And here's a tune with his Quintet Hot Club de France with Grapelli on violin:

Following in Django's footsteps is Jazz singer, flutist and composer Melanie de Biasio from Charleroi (must be something in the water around there), who plays a much more contemporary style of jazz combined at times with elements of prog rock and singing in English.  The 42 year old has been nominated for and awarded numerous prestigious awards for her music.  Here's a sensual performance of her song With All My Love from her 2013 album No Deal.  Gives me goosebumps this!

This song called All My Worlds is from her to date latest
album Lilies, released in 2017:

I'm not sure where the crazy Balkanik band Kermesz a L'Est are based, but given that they toured this summer on bicycle-like contraptions around Mons and Hainault, I assume that is their home region.  According to their own description they fuse Balkan tunes with metal, math rock, electro and free jazz all infused with a healthy dose of humour.  Their live performances are livewire sessions of anarchy complete with long hair, beards, leather jackets and beer.  I'm looking forward to catching up with them at some stage, somewhere.

In the meantime we have to content ourselves with just listening to their recordings.  They released an album in April called RDS-202 after the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated, and it sure is explosive.  It is also available as a pay as you feel like download on bandcamp.  So go on treat yourselves!  Here's the full-length album on YouTube:

And here just a flavour of one of their live performances:

That's it from Wallonia, next stop Brussels.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.