An hour and a half of reflection in the church, but with a big band and accordion

No stage in the Aalst OLV-Bijstandskerk on Saturday evening. The musicians did not take up positions at the altar, but in the side aisles, around the audience that would sit on the church seats in the nave to experience a completely original concert by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. Without piano, guitar or drums, but with accordionist Philippe Thuriot as a guest, in the premiere of Looking withina program with new compositions by Bert Joris, which invite introspection.

They immersed the audience in a subdued atmosphere, without the loud outbursts that we are used to from a big band. For example, the four trumpet players muted their instruments or opted for the flugelhorn (with slightly softer sounds), leader and alto saxophonist Frank Vaganée also played the flute, and Thuriot, above all, determined the timbre with his accordion – those few minutes that he played all alone (and accompanied himself while humming) were even the highlight of the evening.

Joris’s compositions evoked memories of the work of the famous Gil Evans and balanced on the border between classical and jazz. Without a rhythm section, it was mainly Bart De Nolf’s double bass that tied the music together, and that worked well. When one of the wind players soloed, he would move to a different position for a moment to bring the sound into better balance. You could suddenly hear trumpet sounds coming from the very back of the church.

Probably the people sitting in the middle had the best sound experience, but even those sitting right in front of a brass section did not have to put their hands on their ears. And yet I was able to follow everything on the other side of the church well – the reverberation that such a large space entails was almost an extra instrument. Joris has clearly taken the setting of this series of performances into account in his compositions.

“There are so many churches in our country and I thought we could do something with them,” Vaganée said afterwards. “We want to work in a different way every time: a big band can do so much more than what many people think.”

Looking within wants to offer the listener a moment of reflection, and they clearly succeeded on Saturday, given the enthusiastic reactions after the fairly short (75 minutes) but intense concert. “It took some getting used to for everyone, including the audience,” says Vaganée. “But in the end everything went smoothly. One lady even told me she was moved to tears.”