‘BOZAR’s TRIBUTE TO BIRD’

”Don’t play the saxophone, let it play you.” (Bird). 
​​​​​​​Dixit Jean-Michel Pilc: “He also said that music spoke better than words, so now I feel a bit embarrassed to say something about him. The first time I heard Charlie Parker, all I wanted to do was to sing his solos over and over again. Every note just sang and spoke unlike anything I had heard. I am always surprised to see so many people analyze and theorize him, whereas to me, like Mozart, he doesn’t make music, he is music itself.”

In Birds of Paradise, four promising young talents from the Belgian jazz scene transport themselves to an era of musical innovation and cultural revolution. This youthful quartet, led by saxophonist and electronics wizard Andrew Claes, uses the compositions of Parker as a point of departure but separates them from their historical musical context. So that’s YES to virtuosity, harmonic complexity and time changes, and NO THANKS to the academic canon and static jazz styles! Long live Jazz, long live Bebop, and long live Bird... the one true Bird of Paradise.
In collab. with the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp

On the occasion of Charlie Parker’s hundredth birthday, BOZAR and Mithra Jazz à Liège join forces in presenting an international all-star quintet to perform a fitting tribute to Parker’s music.  Frank Vaganée, a familiar name from the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, provides musical direction. He is accompanied by the fantastic American trumpet player Terell Stafford (McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride), pianist Dado Moroni (Bert Joris, Jimmy Cobb), double bassist Philippe Aerts (Bert Joris, Philip Catherine) and virtuoso drummer E.J. Strickland (Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, …).  The quintet has been dubbed the ‘Bird’s Bounce Quintet’. This fresh, new group demonstrates like no other that Bop is more current than ever!