Europe in Concert: The EU Jazz & Blues Festival’s Autumn – Winter 2026 Journey։ Photos

Milan has long occupied an important place in Italy’s musical life, balancing an international cultural outlook with a deep appreciation for intimate performance spaces.

At Blue Note Milano, on Via Pietro Borsieri, 37, the club setting is particularly suited to musicians who thrive on direct communication, rhythmic immediacy and the spontaneous excitement of live improvisation.

Charlie Hunter is an exceptional figure in contemporary jazz guitar. His pioneering use of extended-range instruments allows him to combine bass lines, chordal accompaniment and melodic improvisation in a remarkably integrated musical language. Rather than treating the guitar simply as a solo instrument, he approaches it as a compact, self-contained ensemble.

The artistic fascination of Hunter’s music lies in the way several musical functions appear to coexist beneath a single pair of hands. A pulsing bass line establishes the harmonic foundation, clipped chords provide rhythmic definition, and bright melodic phrases rise above the groove.

Funk, blues, soul and modern jazz become parts of the same conversation, while syncopation and unexpected harmonic turns keep the music in constant motion. His approach has been widely recognised for its unusual combination of technical ingenuity and natural groove.

In a trio setting, that instrumental architecture creates an especially compelling balance between independence and interaction. The music can move from tightly interlocking rhythmic figures to open passages in which a simple motif becomes the starting point for improvisational exploration. The best way to appreciate Hunter’s virtuosity is not merely to admire its complexity, but to hear how effortlessly that complexity serves the music.

At Blue Note Milano, the programme belongs to the adventurous side of the festival: contemporary, rhythmically alive, harmonically curious and rooted in the enduring relationship between jazz and the blues.

Brussels offers a particularly meaningful setting for a concert celebrating Bert Joris and his relationship with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. The Belgian capital is a crossroads of European languages, cultures and artistic traditions, while BOZAR, at Rue Ravenstein 23, is one of its prominent cultural venues.

Joris, the distinguished Belgian trumpeter, composer and bandleader, has developed a musical identity in which melodic elegance, harmonic sophistication and a profound understanding of ensemble colour occupy equal positions. His collaboration with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra places these qualities within the expansive possibilities of a large jazz ensemble.

The programme’s title, The Next Chapter, suggests a forward-looking celebration rather than a retrospective confined to familiar achievements. With Joris’s forthcoming seventieth birthday providing the occasion, the concert also offers an opportunity to reflect on the artistic continuity between generations of European jazz musicians.

The Brussels Jazz Orchestra is especially well suited to this music. A sophisticated jazz orchestra can function as far more than a large accompaniment: saxophones, trumpets, trombones and rhythm section create an evolving palette of colours, from transparent chamber-like passages to powerful, densely voiced climaxes. In the hands of accomplished arrangers and players, a brass chord can feel almost architectural, while a single trumpet line can emerge from the ensemble with extraordinary clarity.

Joris’s compositional sensibility makes the relationship between the individual voice and the collective sound particularly important. The trumpet can sing lyrically above a carefully shaped orchestral texture, answer the reeds in a conversational exchange or lead the ensemble into a more animated, rhythmically charged passage.

The special concert-recording dimension gives the occasion additional significance. It frames the performance not only as a live meeting between composer and orchestra, but also as a musical document intended to preserve a moment in an ongoing artistic journey. The official Brussels Jazz Orchestra website provides a useful photographic reference for the ensemble and its performances.

Nestled in the Bavarian Alps, Schloss Elmau offers a distinctive environment for music: mountain scenery, an atmosphere of retreat and a cultural identity associated with artistic discovery. Located in Krün, the venue provides a fitting backdrop for Lucienne Renaudin Vary, the French trumpeter whose work brings classical refinement into dialogue with the freedom and rhythmic vitality of jazz.

Renaudin Vary has attracted international attention for her command of the trumpet and her ability to move between musical traditions without losing the distinctive character of either. Her artistry combines technical assurance with a lightness of expression that allows the instrument to sound lyrical, playful, brilliant or introspective.

The trumpet is capable of extraordinary contrasts. It can project a clear, radiant melody across a hall, articulate intricate passages with almost vocal precision or soften into a delicate, intimate tone. Renaudin Vary’s cross-genre approach opens the way for these different qualities to coexist within a single programme.

In a band setting, the interplay between soloist and ensemble can reveal a different side of her musicianship from a purely classical performance. Jazz phrasing encourages flexible timing, expressive inflection and responsiveness to the rhythmic character of the accompaniment. Melodies can be ornamented, reshaped and approached from unexpected directions, allowing familiar musical ideas to acquire a sense of discovery.

Schloss Elmau’s surroundings reinforce the appeal of such a programme. The natural stillness of the mountains provides an imaginative counterpoint to the trumpet’s brilliance, while the intimacy of the setting invites listeners to concentrate on tone, phrasing and the subtleties of ensemble communication. The festival’s presentation of Renaudin Vary celebrates a generation of musicians who regard stylistic boundaries not as barriers, but as opportunities for conversation.

Few contemporary guitarists have developed a musical vocabulary as individual as Bill Frisell’s. Across decades of performances and recordings, the American musician has explored the meeting points of jazz, folk, blues, country, experimental music and the traditions of American popular song.

His 2026 European tour with Luke Bergman and Tim Angulo places this distinctive musical personality in a trio context, where space, timbre and attentive listening can be as important as virtuoso display.

Frisell’s playing often begins with deceptively simple material: a few notes, a fragment of melody, an open chord or a phrase that seems to hover between familiarity and abstraction. Through subtle changes in articulation, harmony and tone, he can transform that material into something mysterious and emotionally resonant.

His guitar sound is particularly expressive. Sustained notes may bloom into atmospheric textures; a blues inflection may evoke the grain of an old American song; and a spare melodic statement may carry the emotional weight of an entire composition. Silence is not an absence in this music. It is an active part of the arrangement, allowing a phrase to settle before the next musical idea emerges.

Vienna is internationally associated with classical music, yet its contemporary musical identity also embraces rock, jazz, blues and independent performance culture.

Reigen Live Blues Club offers a setting in which guitar-led music can be appreciated at close range, with the audience able to experience the physical energy of the performance as well as its musical detail.

Miguel Montalban and his band, Southern Vultures, bring a guitar-centred approach to the programme, drawing on the expressive vocabulary of blues and the expansive energy of blues-rock.

The electric guitar has a particularly direct relationship with the blues. Its expressive language depends not only on notes and chords, but on how those notes are produced: bends that stretch a melody, vibrato that gives a sustained tone a human quality, and rhythmic accents that make a riff feel almost conversational.

In a blues-rock setting, these elements can be expanded through greater volume, heavier rhythmic patterns and more forceful ensemble interplay. The rhythm section creates the momentum, while the guitar moves between riff-based passages, melodic responses and improvisation. The result can be muscular without abandoning the blues tradition’s essential emphasis on phrasing and emotional communication.

For the festival, the Vienna appearance represents the strength of regional and club-based music. Such performances help maintain the connection between international touring artists and the local communities that sustain live music throughout the year.

In Bremen, the Meisenfrei Blues Club provides a natural home for music that draws on the blues while embracing the force of heavy rock. Lord Bishop Rocks belongs to a performance tradition in which blues-derived riffs, assertive guitar work and a powerful rhythmic foundation are central to the experience.

Bremen’s place in northern Germany’s musical landscape makes the club setting an important part of this appearance. Here, the music’s impact comes not from orchestral scale or elaborate staging, but from the immediacy of the band.

Heavy blues-rock amplifies some of the blues’s most recognisable characteristics. Repeating riffs establish a hypnotic framework, the drums create forward motion, and the guitar uses distortion, sustain and bends to intensify the emotional contours of the music. Yet the blues remains present beneath the volume: in the phrasing, in the rhythmic placement of the notes and in the call-and-response relationship between musical lines.

The distinction between a technically impressive performance and a convincing blues-rock performance often lies in the strength of the groove. A riff must feel inevitable; a pause must carry tension; and a climactic passage must emerge from the musical argument rather than simply becoming louder.

Meisenfrei’s club atmosphere is well suited to that kind of direct, physical music. The performance also illustrates how blues remains a living influence on contemporary rock, continually reinterpreted by musicians who value its expressive freedom and its capacity to connect with audiences.

London’s musical identity has been shaped by generations of blues musicians, from the British blues revival to contemporary artists who combine traditional influences with modern production and performance styles.

Nightjar, known for its intimate cocktail-bar environment and live music programming, offers an especially interesting contrast to the larger concert venues of the festival.

Mazza’s electro-acoustic solo blues set places the individual musician at the centre of the experience. Without a full band to provide a continuous rhythmic and harmonic framework, the performer must create a sense of movement through guitar technique, phrasing, dynamics and arrangement.

Solo blues is an art of suggestion. A few low notes can establish a bass movement; a chord can imply the rhythm section; and a melodic phrase can become a vocal-like statement even when the instrument is carrying the principal expressive role. Electro-acoustic amplification adds another dimension, allowing the natural resonance of the instrument to coexist with a more immediate, modern sound.

The absence of a large ensemble makes every detail more noticeable. A change in tempo, a pause between phrases or a shift from delicate fingerwork to a sharper rhythmic attack can alter the entire emotional atmosphere.

Mazza’s programme also highlights the blues’s adaptability. The music can retain its traditional expressive foundations while finding a place in contemporary urban nightlife, where listeners may encounter it in a setting that encourages close attention rather than arena-sized spectacle.

Madrid’s blues community has its own distinctive character, shaped by local musicians, intimate venues and the enduring appeal of American blues traditions. The weekly jam session at Moe Bar, led by Tonky de la Peña, belongs to this grassroots culture.

Unlike a concert built around a fixed repertoire and a carefully determined sequence, a jam session creates room for spontaneous encounters. Musicians meet through shared musical vocabulary, familiar chord progressions and the collective understanding of how a blues performance unfolds.

The traditional blues jam is a form of living musical exchange. A guitarist may introduce a twelve-bar progression; a singer may shape the emotional direction of a song; another instrumentalist may respond with a phrase that changes the momentum of the performance. The musicians negotiate dynamics and timing in real time, learning to recognise when to step forward and when to leave space for someone else.

This format requires more than instrumental proficiency. It depends on listening, generosity, rhythmic confidence and an awareness of the ensemble as a whole. The blues progression provides a familiar framework, but each interpretation can be different because each player brings an individual touch, tone and emotional perspective.

Tonky de la Peña’s role as the session leader makes the gathering particularly valuable to the local scene. A regular jam can serve as a meeting place for experienced performers, emerging musicians and audiences interested in discovering the tradition from within.

For the EU Jazz and Blues Festival, this Madrid event is an important reminder that the life of a musical culture cannot be measured solely by prestigious bookings. It also depends on the recurring nights when musicians gather, share their knowledge and keep the music moving forward.

Paris has a long relationship with jazz and blues, from the international musicians who found an audience in the city to the local clubs that continue to support small-scale live performance.

At Le Piano Vache, the weekly Les mardis blues evenings offer a setting for traditional, soulful blues and a welcoming meeting between music and community.

The free-admission format described in the programme makes the event especially significant: it allows people to encounter live blues without the financial commitment associated with many major concerts.

Traditional blues depends on a special kind of expressive economy. A singer does not need to fill every moment with sound; an instrumentalist does not need to demonstrate every technical possibility. The music gains its power through the relationship between a phrase and its response, between the rhythm’s steady foundation and the freedom of an individual voice.

The atmosphere of a regular blues night can also change the relationship between performer and listener. Familiar songs become shared experiences, while spontaneous interpretations bring a sense of discovery. The audience is not simply observing a finished work: it is participating in a continuing tradition.

Paris’s historic role as a meeting point for musicians from different countries makes such evenings especially appropriate within a pan-European programme. The blues may have roots in particular historical and geographical experiences, but its emotional language has travelled widely, finding new meanings wherever musicians make it their own.

Les mardis blues therefore represents the festival’s commitment to musical accessibility, continuity and the local venues that keep blues culture alive beyond the spotlight of major stages.

International jazz encounters: Brazil, Denmark and South Africa

Le Duc des Lombards, at 42 Rue des Lombards in central Paris, is an intimate venue where the proximity between musicians and audience makes every instrumental exchange particularly vivid. Chico Pinheiro’s appearance with his quartet brings the refined language of Brazilian instrumental music into this setting.

The São Paulo-born guitarist and composer is known for combining Brazilian musical traditions with jazz harmony and influences from classical music. For the Paris performance listed in the programme, his quartet features pianist Helio Alves, bassist Mathias Allamane and drummer Rogério Pitomba. The venue’s published listing confirms this line-up and the concert’s place in the Jazz sur Seine 2026 programme.

Pinheiro’s musical world is shaped by the dialogue between rhythm and melody. Brazilian traditions such as samba and bossa nova provide rich rhythmic possibilities, while modern jazz opens up a broader harmonic landscape in which melodies can be reharmonised, expanded and transformed through improvisation.

His guitar playing can be appreciated for its clarity of articulation and its sensitivity to the architecture of a composition. Rather than treating virtuosity as an end in itself, this musical approach places each phrase within a wider expressive structure. A delicate melodic line may be supported by sophisticated chords; a rhythmic figure may suggest the movement of Brazilian popular music; and a solo may gradually unfold into a more exploratory harmonic journey.

Helio Alves’s piano is an especially valuable partner in this musical language. Piano and guitar can exchange harmonic ideas, overlap in rhythmic patterns or create a layered texture in which each instrument retains its own identity. Allamane’s bass establishes the foundation, while Pitomba’s drumming can connect Brazilian rhythmic sensibilities with the flexibility of contemporary jazz.

The quartet’s appearance in Paris illustrates the international character of the festival. Brazilian musical traditions, European concert culture and the shared language of jazz improvisation meet in a setting where subtlety can be as compelling as virtuosity.

Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens provide one of Denmark’s most recognisable cultural settings, combining historic surroundings with a continuing programme of live performance. Within this environment, the Glass Hall becomes the setting for a major jazz celebration: 100 Years of Miles Davis, featuring American trumpeter Randy Brecker and the Tivoli Big Band.

This is a particularly meaningful anniversary in jazz history. Miles Davis, born in 1926, reshaped the music across several eras, from bebop and cool jazz to modal improvisation, orchestral collaboration and electric jazz fusion. His centenary offers an opportunity not merely to revisit his repertoire, but to consider how profoundly his musical ideas continue to influence performers.

The published Tivoli programme confirms that the concert with Peter Jensen directing the big band. The repertoire draws on landmarks including Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain and Davis’s collaborations with Gil Evans. The arrangements move between the intimate sound of the rhythm section and the full presence of the nineteen-piece orchestra.

Randy Brecker is an inspired choice for this tribute. Across a career spanning five decades, he has established himself as a leading voice in modern jazz, fusion and big-band performance. His work with the Brecker Brothers, as well as his associations with major figures in jazz, reflects an artist comfortable with both tradition and experimentation.

Clermont-Ferrand, set against the volcanic landscapes of France’s Auvergne region, has built an important place for itself on the international jazz circuit through the long-running EU Jazz Blues festival. The Maison de la Culture is central to this autumn meeting, which brings established international musicians and adventurous contemporary artists together.

The collaboration between Chicago trumpeter Marquis Hill and South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini offers an especially intriguing encounter between two distinct musical personalities. Their shared programme places improvisation at the centre, inviting listeners to consider how different cultural backgrounds and musical experiences can meet in a common creative space.

Hill’s trumpet playing is grounded in the history of modern jazz while maintaining an individual contemporary voice. His musical language can encompass the articulation and swing of the jazz tradition, more modern harmonic ideas and rhythmic patterns that connect acoustic jazz with wider musical influences.

Makhathini brings a different but complementary perspective. His piano work is closely associated with the musical traditions and contemporary jazz culture of South Africa, with particular attention to the relationship between rhythm, spirituality, repetition and improvisational development. His approach often treats musical ideas as processes that can evolve over time, rather than as fixed statements requiring immediate resolution.

The encounter between trumpet and piano creates numerous possibilities. A melodic phrase can be answered by a harmonic suggestion; a repeated rhythmic pattern can gradually acquire new intensity; and a passage of apparent simplicity can open into a complex conversation between the performers. In improvisational music, the most compelling moments often arise when musicians respond to one another rather than simply execute predetermined ideas.

For the festival, this meeting represents the international spirit of contemporary jazz: a conversation in which American modern jazz and South African musical thought are not placed in opposition, but allowed to enrich one another.

Voice, melody and the meeting of musical traditions

Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana is one of Europe’s most extraordinary concert spaces. Designed by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and opened in 1908, this celebrated Modernisme building is renowned for its elaborate ornamentation, sculptural forms and luminous stained-glass skylight.

Bringing Andrea Motis to such a venue creates a compelling meeting between architectural splendour and musical intimacy. The Spanish trumpeter, saxophonist and singer has developed a distinctive place in contemporary jazz through her ability to move between instrumental performance and song.

Motis’s artistic identity is particularly suited to a programme that draws on several languages and musical traditions. The human voice introduces an immediate narrative dimension, allowing a song’s emotional meaning to emerge through diction, phrasing and the subtle relationship between words and melody. Her trumpet and saxophone provide alternative ways of exploring the same expressive territory, translating melodic ideas into instrumental statements.

A multilingual jazz programme can also illuminate the relationship between language and musical phrasing. Different languages carry different patterns of emphasis, vowel colour and rhythmic flow. When these qualities are handled sensitively, the voice becomes part of the arrangement rather than simply a vehicle for the lyrics.

The trumpet adds another layer. Its sound can be bright and direct, but it can also be soft, intimate and almost vocal in character. A melody first heard in the voice may acquire a new perspective when revisited instrumentally, while the interplay between singing and improvisation can create a sense of continuity across the programme.

The Palau’s exceptional architecture adds a visual dimension to this musical experience. The concert hall’s ornamentation and carefully considered acoustical design make it a fitting setting for a performance in which tone, melody and expressive detail deserve close attention.

Andrea Motis’s appearance represents the festival’s celebration of musical versatility: an artist whose work moves naturally between voice and instrument, popular song and jazz improvisation, and personal expression and shared tradition.

Oldenburg, in northwestern Germany, provides a fitting destination for Lizz Wright’s European tour. At Kulturetage, a venue associated with contemporary cultural programming, the celebrated American singer’s distinctive voice takes centre stage.

Wright’s artistry draws on jazz, gospel, soul, blues and the traditions of American song. Her performances are characterised by a rich vocal tone, a measured sense of phrasing and an ability to convey emotional meaning without relying on unnecessary theatricality.

One of Wright’s greatest strengths is the depth of her vocal colour. Her voice can possess the warmth and resonance associated with gospel, the conversational intimacy of jazz and the emotional directness of blues. These qualities allow her to approach a song as a personal narrative, giving weight to individual words and allowing the spaces between phrases to contribute to the overall expression.

Her relationship with rhythm is equally important. Rather than treating the beat as a rigid structure, she can place a phrase slightly behind the pulse, extend a syllable or allow a melodic line to settle into the accompaniment. This creates an expressive freedom that depends on attentive musical partners.

The contemporary jazz setting gives such a voice room to move. Subtle harmonic changes can alter the emotional meaning of a familiar melody, while restrained accompaniment can make the vocal performance feel even more immediate. When the ensemble builds in intensity, the result can be powerful without sacrificing the intimacy that defines Wright’s musical character.

At the heart of the EU Jazz and Blues Festival’s 2026 Autumn – Winter Jazz – Blues Season stands its director and organiser, Olivia Peevas, whose role in bringing this programme together represents an important commitment to the international jazz and blues community.

A pan-European musical season requires a broad artistic perspective. It calls for an appreciation of different musical traditions, an understanding of the relationship between artists and venues, and the ability to imagine how individual performances can contribute to a larger cultural narrative. The programme presented here reflects those ambitions, connecting celebrated performers, distinctive concert spaces and grassroots music communities across national borders.

The value of Olivia Peevas’s festival leadership can be understood through the breadth of the season itself. Its musical landscape encompasses celebrated American jazz innovators, outstanding European instrumentalists, Brazilian composers, South African musical voices, influential vocalists and blues performers whose work keeps the tradition alive in clubs and local communities.