Double bill: OLA TUNJI + Stann

 OLA TUNJI

OLA TUNJI is a Brussels-based quartet formed around saxophonist Ornella Noulet, united by a shared dedication to the spiritual jazz of John Coltrane. Their music exudes the intensity and openness of the 1960s ‘New Thing’ movement, the genre that later became known as free jazz.

Their name pays tribute to Babatunde Olatunji, the Nigerian-born percussionist and close friend of John Coltrane. He introduced African percussion to jazz audiences in the US and helped shape the rhythmic and spiritual dimensions of 1960s jazz.

Deeply inspired by the great masters of free jazz such as Pharoah Sanders, the Coltranes and Albert Ayler, the group embraces improvisation as a political and spiritual act. On stage, their concerts often develop a trance-like intensity that transports both musicians and audience to a shared sense of elevation. Their music serves as a reminder that jazz can still be a medium for love, brotherhood and sisterhood, and collective elevation.

Their debut release, Untitled EP (27 September 2024), was widely acclaimed, played in Canada, the US, Japan, Belgium and France, and featured in All About Jazz, Citizen Jazz and Bandcamp’s Spiritual Jazz Revival section. In the summer of 2025, OLA TUNJI won both the jury and the audience awards at Gent Jazz Talent, as well as the competition at the Avignon Jazz Festival, where Ornella Noullet also took home the Best Soloist Award. Following this success, the band is now preparing its debut album, due to be released in the autumn of 2026 on W.E.R.F. Records.

In collaboration with Jazzlab.

Photo © Dario Holtz

Stann Etudes for Cornet & Electronics

In contrast to OLA TUNJI’s spiritual exploration is Stan Nieuwhuis’s solo project Stann, although it is a musical quest in a very different way. Using a single cornet and electronic pedals, he builds, layer by layer, a one-man brass orchestra which he brings to life entirely on his own. Drawing on the rich tradition of cornet études — from Arban to Vizzutti — he places this classical study material in a contemporary context.

For this first series, he works with Red Panda’s Particle 2 granular delay pedal, which transforms the cornet into a sound laboratory brimming with unexpected textures and rhythmic shifts. In this way, the etude becomes more than just an exercise: a journey of discovery straddling discipline and experimentation, where virtuosity and imagination constantly merge. The result is an intimate yet compelling performance that continues to surprise the listener.

With Etudes for Cornet & Electronics, Stann brings a breath of fresh air to the field of contemporary music and creates a concert experience that will appeal to both connoisseurs and curious ears alike.