ELLY BROUCKMANS

PRESS

11/9/26 - Marc Philippe Legein on 'The Sweet Suite' @Théâtre MarniUpon entering the main hall of the Marni on Friday, September 11, the eye is immediately drawn to a rather unexpected setting.On stage, around the instruments — most notably the imposing piano and the drummer’s equipment — a few lamps with delightfully old-fashioned shades create the atmosphere of a slightly faded, almost kitsch sitting room. On an easel stands a naïve painting, which we will learn later was painted by Elly Brouckmans’s grandmother, the young Belgian saxophonist to whom the Marni Jazz Festival has given carte blanche.The painting is not there by chance. Brouckmans explains that it evokes for her what music is all about: telling a story, engaging in a conversation, conveying emotions through colours and textures. In the end, the entire concert seems to be contained within this statement of faith.The room fills. Then the lights go out.The slight haze that had been floating above the stage almost disappears into the darkness. A profound silence settles in. Mysteriously, female voices emerge from that silence. A cappella, they develop a kind of spellbinding hymn. The breath of the saxophone joins them, followed by piano, double bass and drums. The music seems less to begin than to gradually emerge from the shadows.From these first minutes, the evening establishes its character: something that is at once a concert, a narrative and a form of almost mystical celebration.Between Jazz and ImpressionismFor this carte blanche, Elly Brouckmans has expanded her quartet Mania — Yarno Hoedemaekers on piano, Toon Rumen on double bass and Umberto Odone on drums — by bringing in three singers: Hsuan-Hui Fang, Marta Frigo and Caro Verheyen.This formation allows Brouckmans to explore a connection that is particularly dear to her: that between the alto saxophone and the human voice. Their registers meet, answer one another and sometimes merge. The saxophone almost becomes a fourth voice, while at times the voices themselves seem to turn into instruments.The project, entitled The Sweet Suite, is rooted in an exploration of harmony, timbre, colour and texture. Drawing on jazz as well as on Brouckmans’s discovery of the French Impressionists, it seeks not so much to juxtapose two musical traditions as to make them genuinely enter into dialogue.And this is precisely where the evening succeeds.Across a series of musical tableaux, four of which evoke the recent solar eclipse while others pay tribute to the legacy of classical composers such as Chopin, a music unfolds that is difficult to confine to any single category. The compositions move from almost contemplative passages to more rhythmic sequences, from harmonic density to sparseness, from written structures to improvisation.The voices are never merely decorative accompaniment. They become musical material: layers, lines, punctuation, breaths. At times they envelop the saxophone; elsewhere they answer it, before breaking away to create a space of their own.A Music of Colours and TexturesThere is a singular alchemy to this music, probably nourished by the dual demands that characterise Elly Brouckmans’s background.Recently graduated with a master’s degree in saxophone from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, after previously earning a degree in biomedical civil engineering, she brings together two qualities one might imagine to be contradictory: great rigour in construction and genuine freedom of expression.Yet this architecture remains invisible to the listener. Never does the sophistication of the writing suffocate the emotion.On the contrary, it seems to create the space necessary for everyone to breathe.Yarno Hoedemaekers on piano, Toon Rumen on double bass and Umberto Odone on drums are not simply accompanists to a saxophonist placed centre stage. Each has a genuine musical territory of their own, while the three singers fully participate in this constant circulation of listening.Perhaps this is what is most striking: the possibility given to every member of the ensemble to excel individually without ever disrupting the collective balance.The musicians listen to one another, respond to one another, step into the light for a moment and then hand it back to the others. The compositions seem sufficiently structured to retain their direction, yet open enough to welcome the unexpected.Here we return to something of the Impressionism Brouckmans claims as an influence: not music attempting to describe an object precisely, but music of sensations, nuances and fleeting perceptions. Colours appear, overlap and then fade away. At times, timbre becomes more important than melody itself.And the setting, which might have seemed almost incidental upon entering the room, ultimately takes on its full meaning. These outdated lamps, the muted lighting, the family painting standing on its easel — all belong to the same universe: one of memory, intimacy and transmission.The painting by Brouckmans’s grandmother was therefore not simply a piece of stage design. It may have been the concert’s first note.A Wonderful DiscoveryWhen the final notes fade away, the enthusiastic response from the audience confirms the impression left by the evening: that of having witnessed not only an excellent concert, but the birth — or at least the public affirmation — of a singular musical universe.At a time when labels are often necessary to announce concerts, The Sweet Suite fortunately reminds us that jazz remains, above all, a territory of encounters and solidarity: between composition and improvisation, between classical music and contemporary language, between voices and instruments, between rigour and surrender.A music that tells stories, enters into dialogue and paints with sound.A major highlight of this edition of the Marni Jazz Festival, and one that will surely not be the last we hear from Elly Brouckmans and this project.The Sweet Suite now deserves a recording that would allow these colours, textures and that strange light that appeared, for one evening, in the darkness of the Marni to be experienced again beyond the ephemeral nature of the concert.original source

9/9/26 - Interview 'The Sweet Suite' @Klara Radiolink to the interview

7/9/26 - Interview 'The Sweet Suite' @Radio Campuslink to the interview

3/9/26 - Article by Dominique Simonet @l'Echolink to the article

29/8/26 - Erik Vandamme on MANIA @Jazz DammeAfter the second set by Jef Chroneos Quartet, it was time for Elly Brouckmans’ MANIA (*****). In her introduction, Lies Steppe emphasized that this is, above all, a true band — something Elly Brouckmans herself also stressed repeatedly. It quickly became clear that this was no empty claim. Brouckmans’ heavenly saxophone lines provided an important thread throughout the music, but they truly came into their own thanks to her fellow musicians. The dynamic drumming of Umberto Odone, the sparkling piano playing of Yarno Hoedemaekers and the warm, groovy bass lines of Toon Rumen merged into one organic whole. Without detracting from their individual qualities — which clearly came to the fore during the solo moments — MANIA’s real strength lay in the collective.According to the band’s biography, the group was formed in a basement in Brussels, and that club-like atmosphere seeped into the music. The quartet delivered rhythmically stimulating jazz that firmly got under your skin, driven by improvisation and an unmistakable sense of fun.The musicians seemed to read each other almost instinctively and effortlessly conveyed their enthusiasm to the audience. And, remarkably, during the set, the sun even managed to peek out from behind the clouds for a moment. As if it, too, wanted a close-up view of how four musicians were bringing so much colour to a grey afternoon through the sheer joy of playing. It could hardly have been a more beautiful picture.original source

1/6/26 - Article by Lieven Keymolen @Jazz&mo'link to the article

8/5/26 - Interview 'De Twintigers' @Klara Radiolink to the interview

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