El Negocito

El Negocito is located on a street corner in a hot Ghent neighbourhood. It has become an essential venue for avant-garde jazz and improvised music. El Negocito has existed thanks to the tenacity of Rogé Verstraete. Initially a film buff, he decided to open a Chilean restaurant-bar with his partner. The place quickly became a meeting place for students, who were happy to be able to treat themselves to excellent dishes at unbeatable prices.

Between the Latin concerts, El Negocito quickly made room for free jazz and uncompromising improvisation. Giovanni Barcella and Jeroen Van Herzeele became regulars and explored every Monday all the corners of jazz. After 10pm, the restaurant becomes a place of musical freedom. More than a club, it is a laboratory.

El Negocito looks like the music it offers, the place seems to be in perpetual construction. Exposed bricks, a non-existent ceiling revealing the crosspieces of the floor on the upper floor, sheets stretched out at the back of the room, a makeshift board where the prices of drinks and dishes are chalked up: everything here is raw, natural and without fuss. The bar is full of the best Latin American spirits, unavailable elsewhere. The smell of good food mingles with the flavours of sweaty jazz. Young jazzmen, eager to experiment, share the stage with the more seasoned ones. It doesn't matter which genre they explore and share. Bart Maris, Joao Lobo, Mathias Van De Wiele, Jordi Grognard, Manolo Cabras, Filip Wauters, Lynn Cassiers... But also Alexandra Grimal, Peter Hertmans, Nicolas Thys, Joachim Badenhorst, Eric Thielemans... they're all there.

The concerts take place on Monday, Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday or Thursday, nothing is defined. The only thing that is certain is that they are free. And they attract the curious as well as the connoisseurs. Bertrand Flamang, the boss of the Gent Jazz Festival, gave Rogé carte blanche at his Jazz & Sounds festival last January. In addition to the club, El Negocito is also a label that has already produced three records (Barcella-Van Herzeele, BackBack and Moker). And Rogé, who is also the initiator of the Jazz Sur l'Herbe festival which takes place in May, a few hundred metres from El Negocito, has many other ideas in mind. He is a gatherer, a dreamer, a scout, call him what you will, and he intends to spread his passion for jazz without blinders beyond our borders. So stay tuned. In the meantime, if you're passing through Ghent, El Negocito is an experience you must try.

(Jacques Prouvost, Jazz In Belgium #71, July 2010)