Brussels Jazz Orchestra to Perform Featuring Kenny Werner, Chris Potter 3/27-4/01

From March 27 - April 1, Half Note Records will present The Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO) featuring pianist Kenny Werner with special guest saxophinst Chris Potter at 8:00PM & 10:30PM at The Blue Note (131 W 3rd. St, New York, NY 10012). This performance will be with Big Band Musicians. Doors open at 6pm. 

Tickets are $35 per table table or $20 at the bar. Visit www.bluenote.net to purchase tickets.

The Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO) is not the kind of jazz orchestra that sticks to standards. It prefers to achieve the highest artistic level by composing original music, creating unique arrangements and playing inventively as well as passionately. This band plays jazz with a dynamic orchestral sound, with a classic strength in which each musician is also a brilliant soloist. Call it an “orchestrated passion for jazz” that incites the BJO to create world-class music.

The BJO was founded in 1993 by artistic director Frank Vaganée, together with Serge Plume and Marc Godfroid. Since its founding, the group has seen its reputation expand far beyond the borders of Belgium with performances on relevant jazz stages across the world.

Most recently, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra was prominently featured in the silent film The Artist, which won Best Original Filmscore at the Oscars in February. Although the film was recorded in Los Angeles, the soundtrack is a Belgian product: Brussels Philharmonic and Brussels Jazz Orchestra perform the award-winning filmscore by Ludovic Bource.

In addition to its own productions, the BJO works with well-known musicians from all over the world, including Maria Schneider, Dave Liebman, Dave Douglas, Gianluigi Trovesi, McCoy Tyner, Maria Joao, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Toots Thielemans, and others. Another of the group’s prominent collaborators, pianist Kenny Werner, appears with the B4JO on the Blue Note stage this evening.

A world-class pianist and composer, Kenny Werner boasts a prolific output of compositions, recordings, and publications that continue to impact audiences and musicians around the world.

Werner was recently awarded the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his seminal work No Beginning No End (2010), a musical journey exploring tragedy and loss, death and transition, and the path from one lifetime to the next. His groundbreaking work on improvisation, the book Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within (1996), has also placed him in great demand as a clinician and teacher worldwide.

In 2010, the BJO and Werner released their collaborative album Institute of Higher Learning on Half Note Records. In tonight’s performance, Werner and the BJO will unite with special guest saxophonist Chris Potter to perform music from this album, as well as other selections.

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