Gaume Jazz : Concert No Wall, no War

No Wall no War is a ballet score written by Charles Loos at the request of Peter Meckel, director of the Hidden Valley Institute of Arts California to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The writing began in 1991 when the Gulf War broke out. The music is therefore full of intense hope, but it is also thwarted by a deep anxiety: We can distinguish between alternating colourful lyrical flights and musical moments bathed in a certain derision. The ballet was created in 1993 in California and then in 1994 recreated in Arlon, at the initiative of the Gaume Jazz and the Maison de la Culture d'Arlon. More than ever, the emotions raised by this work are part of a pressing and even oppressive current situation... Hence the idea of re-creating this work and giving it a place on the jazz and dance scenes.

Under the direction of Charles Loos, a team of young instrumentalists will play an updated and rearranged version of the work for a quartet where the accordion will replace the piano and the choreographic creation will be carried by Marie Simon, young Gaumaise artist and his Compagnie de danse (+/- 10 in.euses-eurs). The idea is also to allow dance companies to reappropriate the work.

Charles Loos was born in Brussels in 1951. After a classical training, he left in 1972 for the Berklee School of Music in Boston to study jazz composition and orchestration. Back in Europe, he accompanies many jazz soloists (Toots Thielemans, Chet Baker, Philip Catherine...) and variety (Maurane) and is part of more experimental groups (Abraxis, Julverne...).  

For some years now, he has been particularly fond of concerts and intimate recordings in solo, duo, trio, performing especially his own compositions, fed by very diverse elements: serious music, folklore, jazz of yesterday and today. These different formulas have taken him around the world for tours, festivals, radio-TV shows, recordings and internships. Finally, the music of theatre and teaching complement its activities.

Award: «Sax» for best concert of the year in 1988 and best record in 1992, «Django d'or» in 1997.

Read more (by Jean-Pol Schroëder)