Few cities can claim a share in the sound of jazz the way Brussels can. Rocco Forte Hotels is putting that story to work at its Brussels address: this autumn, Hotel Amigo, a few steps from the Grand Place, opens a new season of Mix & Melody, the live music series that fills Bar Magritte every Friday and Saturday with jazz, swing, blues, boogie and Latin rhythms.
October’s programme pays tribute to some of the names that shaped the genre, from Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker to Erroll Garner, Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. The saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster are honoured this season as well, and that choice is no accident.
At a glance
- What
- Mix & Melody, a live music series with jazz, swing, blues, boogie and Latin rhythms
- Where
- Bar Magritte at Hotel Amigo, Brussels, a few steps from the Grand Place
- When
- every Friday and Saturday evening, new season this autumn
- October
- tributes to Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Erroll Garner, Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller
- At the piano
- resident pianist Druss Lecomte
- In the glass
- Good Faith and Lyricism, served in glassware inspired by Magritte’s bowler hat and pipe
- Hotel
- 171 rooms and suites, Ristorante Bocconi, Bar Magritte
A Belgian invention
The saxophone, perhaps the instrument most closely tied to jazz today, began in Belgium. Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant in 1814 and learned his trade in his father’s instrument workshop in Brussels. There he started the experiments that led to a brass instrument played with a single reed, which he patented in Paris in 1846. Sax built it for military bands and orchestras. He could not have imagined that decades later it would carry the improvised solos of Hawkins, Young and Webster.
Brussels was also one of the first European cities to take up the new music from America, and Belgium did more than listen. The writer Robert Goffin published Aux frontières du jazz in 1932, one of the first serious books ever written about jazz. Django Reinhardt, the guitarist who shaped European jazz, was born in Liberchies in 1910. Toots Thielemans, born in Brussels in 1922, became one of the world’s great jazz harmonica players and guitarists.
A bar named after Magritte
Bar Magritte is the world’s first bar dedicated to the surrealist painter René Magritte, and it pairs his name with the city’s jazz heritage. The room is larger and a good deal less smoky than the early jazz venues, yet the idea is the same: night owls, jazz lovers and curious travellers sit close enough to the musicians to feel every note. Resident pianist Druss Lecomte has played Mix & Melody since its beginnings. He gave his first concert at seventeen at L’Os à Moelle, one of the city’s celebrated music venues, and describes the bar as “imaginative, elegant and playful”.
“Music speaks a universal language. There are no borders, no flags and no barriers,” says Druss Lecomte.
Bowler hat, pipe and a Dame Blanche
Magritte is on the menu, too. Cocktails arrive in custom glassware inspired by his bowler hat and pipe. Among the signatures are Good Faith, with almond-infused bourbon, Tio Pepe sherry and a touch of mezcal, and Lyricism, with Calvados, pear syrup and pear cider. The small plates mix Brussels and Italy: mini waffles with salmon and avocado, golden frites and a Dame Blanche waffle to finish.
Where else to hear jazz in Brussels
If one evening of music is not enough, most of the city’s jazz clubs lie within walking distance of the Grand Place:
- L’Archiduc near the Bourse: an Art Deco bar from 1937 and a jazz institution since the 1950s, where Miles Davis once performed. Jazz every Saturday and Sunday in the late afternoon.
- Sounds Jazz Club in Ixelles: open since 1986, a benchmark for Belgian and international jazz, known for its jam sessions.
- Jazz Station in Saint-Josse: a listed 19th-century railway station, restored in 2005 as a venue for concerts, exhibitions and emerging talent.
- The Music Village: a jazz club in two 17th-century houses near the Grand Place, hosting Belgian and international artists since 2000.
- Toots Jazz Club: named after Toots Thielemans and led by the pianist Joachim Caffonnette, a New York-style club steps from the Grand Place.
For larger concerts, Flagey and Bozar bring international jazz names through the season. And every May the Lotto Brussels Jazz Weekend, Belgium’s largest free jazz festival, fills the Grand Place and the city’s squares with more than 100 free concerts.
Staying at Hotel Amigo
Hotel Amigo, part of the Rocco Forte Hotels collection, has 171 rooms and suites and combines Belgian tradition with contemporary comfort. Besides Bar Magritte, the house has the award-winning Ristorante Bocconi with Italian cooking. Mix & Melody takes place every Friday and Saturday evening, so if a concert is the reason for your stay, plan the trip around the weekend.
