Belgian Italian Jazz Festival program 2025
Five years of music, encounters, workshops, exchanges, and collaborations. The Belgian Italian Jazz Festival was founded in 2019 with a clear goal: to promote Italian jazz in Belgium and strengthen the cultural ties between the two communities.
Co-produced with the Italian Cultural Institute of Brussels and the Consulate General of Italy in Brussels, the festival now celebrates its fifth edition — an important milestone and, at the same time, a new beginning.
Jazz, a universal language of freedom and improvisation, meets Brussels, the European capital and crossroads of cultures. Here, the festival has become a true space for encounter and dialogue, bringing together generations and audiences in a collective experience that transcends geographical and linguistic boundaries.
The 2025 it’s FREE Entrance
Fanfara bersaglieri
Gennaretti/Lalli
DAY 1 – 09/12/25 @ 19:00
Passos & Loveri
Ft Pietro Condorelli
DA 1 – 09/12/25 @ 19:45
Docufilm Screening
Navigando con le vele dei sogni
DAY 2 – 10/12/25 @ 18:00
Chiaravalle & Vassallo
A single drop of water – Seaside
DAY 2 – 10/12/25 @ 19:00
The Jazz Sailor
Music, Video, Narration
DAY 2 – 10/12/25 @ 19:45
Why two themes?
In previous editions, the Belgian Italian Jazz Festival revolved around a single overarching theme that unified the two evenings. This year, for the first time, we chose to split the focus — offering two distinct yet complementary perspectives on jazz and its dialogue with the world.
The Roots of Jazz looks back, reconnecting with the popular, collective, and ritual origins of this music — a tribute to the spirit of community and movement that has always defined it.
The Element of Water, on the other hand, looks forward. It draws inspiration from one of the most pressing themes of our time — sustainability and the protection of natural resources — while exploring water as a metaphor for transformation, balance, and rebirth.
Together, these two themes embody the dual identity of the festival: tradition and innovation, memory and awareness, showing how jazz continues to evolve as a living art form that reflects both its roots and the world we live in today.
Le Radici del Jazz
The evening “Le radici del jazz” (The Roots of Jazz) celebrates the popular and processional origins of jazz, inspired by the brass and marching bands that shaped its early spirit of community, rhythm, and shared energy.
Opening the night, the Fanfara Gennaretti-Lalli of Ladispoli — founded in 2015 and directed by Luca Lalli — brings the vitality of a popular and communal tradition, linking the festive roots of marching bands to the birth of jazz.
The evening continues with the Passos Loveri Duo, featuring special guest Pietro Condorelli, one of Italy’s most acclaimed jazz guitarists. His music bridges tradition and modernity, showing how jazz remains a living language of dialogue and creativity.
L’elemento acqua
The second evening of the 5th edition is dedicated to water — a universal symbol of balance, transformation, and renewal, yet also a fragile resource at the heart of today’s environmental challenges.
The night opens with a screening of “Navigando con le vele dei sogni”, a documentary written and directed by Angelo Gregorio at the Italian Naval League – Cariati section, under the patronage of the National League. Set on the Ionian coast of Calabria, it tells the story of a small sailing school that became a place of education, inclusion, and respect for the sea, through the voices of children and local community members.
The program continues with “A Single Drop of Water – Seaside Jazz”, featuring Felice Chiaravalle (guitar) and Michele Vassallo (saxophone). Their performance transforms reflections, currents, and silences into sound — an evocative musical journey inspired by the sea.
The evening concludes with “The Jazz Sailor – Immersive Concert”, an original production by the festival’s artistic director Angelo Gregorio. Blending music, narration, and visuals, it brings to life the creative research behind Jazz Sailor – Il jazz nella vela, la vela nel jazz (book, 2024) and the upcoming album (May 2025), exploring freedom, introspection, and sustainability.
Together, these performances offer a polyphonic portrait of water — a shared resource, a metaphor for life, and a boundless soundscape.
Belgian Italian Jazz Festival 