Brussels Jazz Orchestra Presented by Liszt Academy

The 1960s was a decade of struggle for civil rights. Martin Luther King, the symbol of this era, was assassinated exactly 50 years ago in 1968, and this tragedy inspired Frank Vaganée and Tutu Puoane, who as a South African lived through the injustices of the apartheid system herself, to put together a special jazz programme themed on human rights. Towards the end of the 1960s, many American actors, musicians and other celebrities tried in their own way to participate in civil rights battles. In pop, the lyrics to soul songs proved to be effective weapons; but let us not forget that there were also highly politicized works in the genre of jazz, most often instrumental – just consider Charles Mingus and his composition Fable of Faubus. Vaganée and Puoane have hand-picked classic protest songs from Nina Simone through Joni Mitchell to Stevie Wonder. These old songs are given a modern instrumentalization by the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, yet their message remains constant: we are all made equal.