Dear friends,

It has been five years now since our story began. Initially 17 musicians gathered to form the ‘Brussels Youth Jazz Orchestra’, a 3-year project initiated by the ‘Brussels Jazz Orchestra’ and ‘Jeugd en Muziek Brussel’. During these three years this orchestra worked with great composers and international conductors such as Michel Herr, Klas Lindquist, Michael Abene, Pierre Drevet, Lode Mertens, Johan Plomp, John Ruocco, …

Today, the BYJO has grown and evolved into a professional jazz orchestra called ‘Bravo Big Band’. For almost two years now, we operate as an autonomous association (VZW) based in Brussels. From the start we had the great opportunity to have a residency in one of the best and hippest jazz clubs in Brussels, Bravo BXL, where we play once a month. The music varies from pieces we already played as BYJO and arrangements we bought recently, but most importantly we expand our repertoire a great deal by playing new original compositions and arrangements, written by band members who are also talented writers. After doing many concerts and projects with famous guests (Jean-Paul Estiévenart Steven Delannoye , Pierre Drevet , Jaune Toujours , Michel Herr,...), Bravo Big Band is now tackling a similarly ambitious project: the recording of it’s debut album!

For this first opus, we decided to record an album consisting entirely of our own compositions and arrangements and this in the best conditions possible. Therefore we want to hire an experienced big band conductor and sound engineer, to raise the level to our highest potential.

The album will be very important to stimulate the future of the orchestra and to help us with convincing labels, programmers, … and with the development of future projects we are working on.

However, it is needles to say that this adventure needs a significant investment. That is why we reach out to you! We need your support in order to turn this dream into reality!

Each band member believes in this great adventure and looks forward to sharing the results of our hard work with you!

Musical greetings,

Bravo Big Band

Reeds: Rob Banken, Dieter Vaganée, Bruno Van Der Haegen, Matthias Van den Brande, Ruben Verbruggen

Trumpets: Loïc Dumoulin, Antoine Dawans, Daniel Vanderhoydonks, Thomas Mayade

Trombones: Quinten De Craecker, Robbe Defraye, Vincent Heirman, Bart Van Gorp

Guitar: Guillaume Vierset

Piano: Karel Cuelenaere

Bass: Ruben Lamon

Drums: Matthias De Waele

Dsc_6152-1464021401

© pull & over photographs

Dsc_6070-1464021703

© pull & over photographs

Bravo_big_band_jazz_marathon-1464021955

Bravo Big Band Jazz Marathon 2016

Bravo Big Band - 1st Recording