In the Middel of it all

The Wayne Shorter Quintet, Randy Weston solo, Fred Hersch Trio + 2, Bzz Pük (trombonist Geoffroy de Masure, bassist Linley Marthe and drummer Stéphane Galland) + Nguyên Lê, all for €22? I'm there. I'll let you know if it was as good in the ears as on paper.

I would have liked to have gone on friday (notably to see Teun Verbruggen's Around the Drummer aggregation of regular and irregular partners) and/or monday as well, but I'm not made of money, y'know. Frankly, the other two days look rather weak. The club scene has been pretty dead of late, so it'll be nice to get something going again.

A few days later there's the Free Music Festival XXXII at the same place, which is ironic, as the FMF was founded lo those many years ago in Newport Rebels fashion (in a different part of Antwerpen) by Fred Van Hove and others excluded from... Jazz Middelheim.