User:Mattnewest/Jazz in Nl

A page about jazz in Belgium

Jazz in Belgium describes the development of jazz styles in Belgium from the 1920s to the present day, and the jazz musicians and promoters who have played a role in this. Together with France and Great Britain, Belgium was one of the first three European countries to play jazz since the beginning of the last century. The prominent place that Belgium occupies in the development of European jazz is not only due to talented musicians, but certainly also to the pioneering spirit of passionate jazz promoters such as Félix-Robert Faecq and Robert Goffin.

During the 20th century, Belgium experienced several 'golden periods' or 'golden ages' of jazz. [1] [n 1] The first started after the pre-jazz period with a performance by the Mitchell's Jazz Kings, a group of black musicians who appeared on January 24, 1920 in the revue "Laisse-les tomber" in the Alhambra in Brussels. [2] Their passage would lead to the creation of numerous Belgian jazz bands, such as the Bing Boys and the Mohawk's Jazz Band. Also in 1920, the first European big band was founded: the Bistrouille Amateur Dance Orchestra ("BADO").Musique Magazine, the first jazz magazine in the world, [3] was born in the 1920s. The second golden period started after the Liberation (1945), with the foundation of the Bob Shots (the first national bop orchestra ), [4] and the foundation of the Jazz Club de Belgique, which would welcome almost all the great names of the jazz world. to get. Figures who rose to prominence during this period included Bobby Jaspar, Jacques Pelzer , Toots Thielemans and René Thomas. Jazz experienced a decline in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, after which a new, third heyday began in the 1980s.