Latvian jazz artists enrapture Brussels audience

During the Brussels Jazz Festival last week, the audience was enraptured by Latvian jazz musicians – the Māris Briežkalns Quintet and the Laima Jansone Trio who performed together in the project Rigas Ritmi Allstars.

The Director of the Flagey Concert Hall, Gilles Ledure, in his speech expressed appreciation of the cooperation with Latvia and especially – with the Rigas Ritmi Festival. He highly appreciated the Latvian cultural programme organised in Brussels during the Latvian Presidency and expressed his delight to continue the cooperation.

The Minister for Culture, Dace Melbārde, also was among the guests of the concert and she reminded that Latvia is a country of many talented people. Professionals of jazz music were also invited. A week prior the concert all the tickets were sold out.

The surprise of this festival was the Latvian traditional musical instrument – kokle. Kokle player Laima Jansone performed together with percussionist Artis Orubs and bass player Andris Grunte. Already before the concert Belgian press paid great attention to this musical project which has helped this Latvian traditional musical instrument to gain an entirely new sound and appeal.

The audience was captivated by the programme Latvian Evergreens performed by the musicians of the Māris Briežkalns Quintet – Edvīns Ozols (bass), Viktors Ritovs (keyboard), Māris Briežkalns (drums), Gints Pabērzs (saxophone) and Intars Busulis (vocal, trombone) as well as percussionist Tiago Loej from Brazil who joined them exclusively for this concert.

This concert is a part of the cultural programme of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. It was organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Belgium and the Secretariat of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU in cooperation with the Flagey Concert Hall and Rigas Ritmi Festival.

As part of the Presidency’s cultural programme, Māris Briežkalns Quintet will also perform in Washington DC and the Laima Jansone Trio will hold two more concerts in Brussels and Luxembourg.