Yes! Once again, the organisers of the Antwerp Jazz Festival Jazz Middelheim and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp are tightening their bonds. Three students get three days to get ready for a dazzling performance together with the equally dazzling Joe Lovano. He is the coach on duty and takes Lars Van de Voorde (piano), Jef Manderveld (double bass) and Jesse Dockx (drums) under his wing to prepare for an amazing concert on the main stage.
'Catwalk', the new album of drummer and alumnus Jazz Casper Van de Velde, is warmly welcomed.
Matthias Heyman is the first Belgian who ever devoted a doctoral research on a jazz topic. During his PhD in the Arts at the Royal Conservatoire and the University of Antwerp, he studied the music, life and legacy of double bass player Jimmie Blanton, band member of Duke Ellington. He was seen as a revolutionary musician and one of the key figures in jazz, a status that Heyman, being a bass player himself, analyzed and nuanced. With 'Revolutionizing the Jazz Bass: The Life and Music of Jimmie Blanton', Matthias Heyman was the seventh Doctor to receive a PhD at the Conservatoire.