Gaume Jazz Festival : Tom Bourgeois 4tet + 2 "Lili"

Living Music in Memory of Lili Boulanger

Tom Bourgeois, sax, clarinet / Alex Koo, piano / Lennart Heyndels, double bass / Théo Lanau, drums / Guests: Veronika Harcsa, vocals, lyrics / Vincent Courtois, cello

Paradoxical, lively music, both tightly written and free, reminding us that love transcends genres and time.

The Project

What happens when we recognize someone without knowing them? We experience love. And what could be sweeter when this encounter is sparked by music? We can envy Tom Bourgeois for having encountered the compositions of Lilli Boulanger (1893-1918). But we can also thank him for transforming this encounter into a tribute album of rare intensity.

Across 14 tracks, the composer and saxophonist not only offers a sensitive interpretation of the work. He goes further by investigating the echoes that this music, written a century ago, can have with his own approach. Thus, musical colors and a certain form of lyricism constitute the common markers of an eminently contemporary landscape, which Bourgeois also explores with other of his projects (Murmures, Moanin' Birds, Rumeurs, and solo).

The result is music that draws at times from jazz, at times from contemporary music, but without collage or stitching. On the contrary, it is the singularity of a coherent voice that emerges from this alliance.

With Lili, Tom Bourgeois offers us paradoxical music, both intricately composed and free. A vibrant music reminding us that love transcends genres and time. He had already done this type of work with Maurice Ravel, through a "reinterpretation" of the "String Quartet" on the second CD of his double album "Murmures" (2018). This is a rewriting aimed at making the music resonate differently. And most certainly to pay homage to Lili Boulanger.

See him at the Gaume Jazz Festival 2025!